Country Strife

Year of the Glove

2012-01-07T11:36:00.000Z

2011 was definitely the Year of the Sock. Nineteen pairs made - two pairs for MIL, one pair for my sister, one pair for Paul and the rest were mine, all mine. Evil laugh...

Sadly three early pairs are no longer with us. The very first pair I made, surprisingly, are still going strong. But pair number 2 bit the dust when the kitchener-stitched toes came apart. Pair number 3, my first attempt at toe-ups never made it to my feet - scrap yarn, socks looked dreadful and were assigned straight to the bin but served their purpose as a learning curve. From this point on all socks have been toe-up. Pair number 4 were fine, but met with a disaster in the washing machine... I have one other pair that almost met the same fate - somewhat felted and shrunk but I could stretch them enough while they were still damp so now they are a tight fit!

The end of 2011/start of 2012 has been all about hands.

My first ever glittens - had a lot of use already on the late night dog walks when Paul is away. My sister requested a pair for her birthday, and they are already done with a different cable pattern.

and mittens - not quite so successful, but used up some leftover yarn from a jumper, and are really warm

and gloves. The saying 'fits like a glove' never applied to my bought gloves which always had a good half inch or more excess finger flopping about. But these fit perfectly, right down to my mismatched thumbs!

Next major project, already underway, is an Aran 'shirt' in a book I have owned for 20+ years but never had the courage to attempt...

Xmas Tree Socks

2011-12-20T14:40:00.000Z

I've just published my first pattern as a free Ravelry download.
Really excited to see how well it does :)
Maybe in about 11 months as not much time to make them for 2011...

Here is the Pattern

Men!

2011-12-18T12:36:00.000Z

So most of you will know that I have been knitting...and knitting...and knitting this year.
A couple of sweaters, a couple of jackets, a few other bits and bobs, but mainly socks...
And I have often asked Paul "Do you want me to make you a pair?"...
And I get a non-committal response.
And last time we went to M&S he even went as far as putting a multi-pack of their socks in the shopping basket...
And then a couple of days ago, with snowy sleet on the ground, he decides he could really do with some nice thick warm socks...

Mellow Yellow?

2011-12-07T10:39:00.000Z

Eight months plus on from deciding I would attempt to make the Kaffe Fassett Outlined Star jacket I finally finished it yesterday afternoon. I did have a couple of long breaks - 4 months off before I made a concerted effort to do some work on it every day. I set myself a target of 3 rows a day to finish the back - it was taking about 40 minutes a row to work across the sleeves and back. It speeded up a little once I had divided for the neck...

350 grammes of yarn (used 4 stranded) for the star outlines
450 grammes of assorted greys for the star centres, changing the combination every three rows or so
850 grammes of assorted yellows for the background, changing every two rows
Calculated I used about 3 miles of yarn!

WSC Failing Memories

2011-11-20T11:12:00.002Z

I'm cheating a bit here because I was asked to write a short report for the SSA...

Allan and I were travelling together on the Tuesday, flying from Edinburgh via Amsterdam to Warsaw, due to arrive at 4.30 pm. We picked Allan up and arrived at Edinburgh with plenty of time to spare only to see our flight was delayed by half an hour. This eventually became an hour and a quarter meaning that we missed our onward connection. Unhappily for us they (KLM - name and shame) decided to put us on a Lufthansa 7.30 pm flight via Munich! Allan managed to get a message to Philip to let him know. We were both getting stressed out as the Munich flight started to also show a delay, and our connection there looked in jeopardy. Half an hour late, and when we landed in Munich we ran to the next gate which they had kept open, knowing we were coming! We finally arrived in Warsaw at 11 pm, but unfortunately my baggage didn't run us fast as us at Munich. After filling in a lost baggage form we arrived at the Hilton around midnight and managed to register as they were still getting the room ready.

So I sat down to game 1 just relieved to be playing. I lost the first and last matches of day 1, but won the 5 in between, which was more than I had hoped for considering the circumstances. My baggage had arrived by the time I got back to my room. I was very grateful with how many people came to say how glad they were I had made it during the day, and offering help. Beverley Calder let me use her score pad for day 1.

This turned out to be a frustrating tournament. Everytime I made a move up the leaderboard to be in contention I then had a run of losing games to drop back down the field. However, I was still in with a chance on the final day which started well. I missed my chance in the afternoon when I dismissed K(EROS) against Chris Lipe which would have won me the game and moved me up to fifth or sixth with 3 to go. I lost the next game too against Komol - a horribly frustrating game from my perspective. I bounced back to win the penultimate game which gave me a chance to finish 10th if I could win the final match against Alistair Richards. It started well, with me taking a decent lead but then a run of 4 vowelless racks killed my chances as he got back-to-back bonuses and a substantial lead that I could not overhaul.

On the whole I think I played well. I got a couple of 'gifted' games that I should have lost, most notably Nathan Benedict not knowing/blocking MONETHS on my final rack. I was also happy to make a miracle comeback against Lewis Mackay - I knew I needed to make dangerous openings and sometimes luck smiles on you.

I finished 18th, very disappointed. But happy that Scotland has achieved a fifth spot for 2013.

Lucky and Unlucky

2011-11-05T14:55:00.003Z

As I was taking the dogs out at lunchtime Poncho started to get very interested in something on the side of the road opposite Margaret's. And then it flapped its enormous wings a couple of times and landed a couple of yards further in to the verge.
Poncho was still quite excited and began straining on the lead and barking.
A few more wing beats and it perched on the metal feeding trough a bit further back.
I turned the dogs around and got them home.
Grabbed my camera, hoping it was still there as I headed out the back door.
I couldn't believe my luck.
I had just got out the gates, camera switched on and was approaching the road quietly when two elderly cyclists came by. This was very unfortunate. A cheery "Hello!" from the man at the back and all hopes of a photograph evaporated as the bird flew off.
I have no idea what it was. Definitely a large bird of prey. The only colour that I could see was a dark brown, and looking up my bird book has not helped. The closest I could get was an eagle, but I don't think we get them around here...

The Postman Cometh

2011-10-26T21:20:00.004+01:00

I may get around to my WSC experience, but not at the moment.

This post is to thank MIL for my birthday present.

In Mumbai we were asked by our guide "How many people can you get on a train in India?" The same answer goes for how much sock yarn do you need? MORE!

Hours of fun going through all my favourite on-line yarn sites before deciding which one to choose - Violet Green.

And then more fun in deciding exactly which yarns to get.

And then the anticipation of it arriving in the post.

And this morning hearing the parcel land on the doormat. 400 grammes of beautiful squishy softness...

Nothing New

2011-09-30T13:21:00.009+01:00

I have been prompted for an update on life at Todheugh.

Since my last dim and distant posting what has happened.

I played my BEST quarterfinal against Wale. It went down to the wire, with me ahead 7.5-6.5. I could afford to lose the last game but not by a lot. As it was I won it and proceeded through to the semifinal against Mikki. We have arranged for that to be played this coming Tuesday/Wednesday - now up to best of 17.

It was the NSC semifinals at the start of September, 14 games over a weekend. Allan and I went down to Leeds on the train - a relatively pain-free journey other than the train was about 20 minutes late so we had to go straight to the venue with our luggage. This also went down to the wire. I was lying in 3rd going in to the last game with Wayne snapping at my heels. We were both one game behind the leaders - Gary Oliver and Paul Allan. With me playing Gary and Wayne playing Paul I really needed Wayne to win as Gary was realistically too far ahead on spread for me to overhaul him. Wayne did the decent thing but unfortunately a high-scoring bonus from Gary near the end of our match meant that although I still won the game I was a measly 5 points of spread behind Wayne and finished 3rd. Good luck to both Gary and Wayne in the final.

Two weeks later and it was the NSC Teams final. Paul was also away that weekend but Diana and Reg had kindly agreed to look after Jen and Poncho for us. I thought I had been really organised in loading the car with their beds, food etc until I arrived and discovered that I had forgotten to put their bowls in the car - left sitting on the drive where I had dumped them prior to ensuring they had done the necessary before packing them in the car. Continued on to Allan's and once Stuart had arrived we all set off for Bradford. We had booked in to the Holiday Inn (tourney venue) for the Friday night rather than setting off at some godforsaken hour the following day for an 11 a.m. start. It is fair to say that the whole team greatly underperformed...

My study plan is behind schedule - having to actually play not only screws up those days but also the following day or two with having to catch up on the cardbox. WSC approaching way too fast...

On the non-scrabble front my sock knitting has been continuing.

A pair for MIL

and two more pairs for me.

Almost finished another pair but fear I may run out of wool a few rows short. This could be a minor disaster as the on-line store where I got the yarn cheaply no longer stocks this colour. Have spotted some on ebay so fingers crossed - dye lot should not matter with this yarn. It is especially annoying as it is the same brand as my other only long pair of socks where I was a couple of rows short, and I amended the pattern to overcome this...

Other news - new bath arrived last week.

Paul and I went up to the Edinburgh Playhouse to see Lee Evans for Paul's big birthday.

Margaret's new barn is being built. Just to prove that we are also have an Indian summer...

Oh - and I have reached my half-century!

Start All Over Again...

2011-08-19T14:36:00.008+01:00

I finally got to the end of the 8s yesterday. Hurrah! 40161 of them. I skipped through quite a lot near the end - not too concerned about adding them to the cardbox if they required a blank to ever actually be played.

I must say that the back end is stacked with Jewish and what I would guess are Afrikaans tongue twisters.

Back to the beginning again now. Scary how I am struggling with these - I am getting them but some are taking a lot longer than I would like.

Study plan now consists of
1) Clear cardbox
2) 500 7s
3) Clear cardbox
4) 500 8s
5) Clear cardbox
6) Do a 'set' of words - this can be anything. 4s, 5s, a particular suffix...
7) Clear cardbox

How long I will keep this up I don't know.

I have my BEST quarter final against Wale Fashina fixed for next Tuesday/Wednesday.

The garden has been largely ignored lately - but I don't feel too guilty as the weather has been pretty awful on the whole.

But I can knit socks while I am studying...

Which is just as well, as I seem to have accumulated quite a lot of sock yarns in a fairly short time...

On The Menu Tonight

2011-08-06T13:31:00.011+01:00

Forewarned is forearmed. The 24-hour plus expected rain has started. According to metcheck 40mm today and another 10mm tomorrow.

But yesterday was lovely, and we both sprang in to garden action.

Paul cut the lawns and the verges. Then took advantage of the continued warmth and sunshine to give both the dogs a bath. They are both moulting like crazy, so a good going over with the grooming gloves once they had dried off has given the lawn a fur coat.

I got rhubarb picking. 5 pounds cleaned, chopped, bagged and now in the freezer.

And then I could get to the nettles growing at the back of them. Piled them on to the stairs to nowhere rather than struggling to get them into the rubbish sacks in situ. And then I had to clear all the nettles growing in the stairs to nowhere to get to them. And cleared all the other weeds and crud that had accumulated on the stairs. They now look better than they have ever looked before, and will get a good wash down now. Finished off with weeding the middle raised planter.

This morning, after the dog walk, out to pick yet more alpine strawberries. As long as I keep picking them they keep producing more... I have given up weighing them, but I must be getting a couple of pounds every week. And that doesn't include the ones I pick and eat as I walk down the garden. Even Jen has her own small patch that she sticks her head in and delicately pulls the ripe ones off!

And then out the back to pick the veggies for tonight's stir fry. A mix of curly kale, pak choi, onions, mangetout, peas, mangetout that are now peas, and the first of the purple dwarf beans.

And a few more sticks of rhubarb to stew up. That is probably the last of the year.

And then I spotted these...

I thought I had a rogue tomato plant amongst my potatoes.

But no, they are potato fruits!

Careful examination showed a few more. Just on the Maris Piper's.

Investigation shows that
1) They are highly poisonous - potatoes (and therefore tomatoes) are members of the deadly nightshade family.
2) They are the only way new varieties of potatoes are created as they do not come true to seed.

I do also have a few baby tomatoes coming...

Just need to make sure I don't muddle the two up.

And then on to the fruit tree bed. Now that I have cleared a large number of the rogue potatoes growing there I can get to the cordon fruit trees again. Armed with scissors and garden string I started tying in the new growth of the leaders to their canes. I finished off in the rain...

The Fruits of my Labour

2011-08-04T14:46:00.007+01:00

My jam pan has been earning its keep again.

Gerry and Jane came up for a few days just before Paul went to Toronto, and one evening we went out to pick the wild raspberries up the road. The next day I gave Jane a jam-making demonstration - and a small jar to keep her going for a few day's worth of toast.

I had another picking session a week or so later with Penny, and those are now in the freezer.

Won't get many more as the hedge cutters have now been along there now, severely limiting the canes to those actually in the hedge. Not a good year compared to the previous few, with me only getting about three pounds but at over £12 a kilo for "tame" ones in the shops I shouldn't complain.

Next came the rhubarb and apple chutney. Unfortunately bought cooking apples - but give it time. But my own rhubarb and onions.

A little improvisation from the recipe. Brown vinegar instead of white. And white sugar instead of brown. Should balance itself out :)

I added some ground ginger and cinnamon for flavour.

I forgot how long chutney takes compared to jam, with frequent stirring to stop it becoming a gungy mess on the bottom of the pan. There was an almost disaster when I forgot about it and accepted a scrabble match on ISC.

But it seemed to turn out okay. We will find out in about three months time when we get to taste it.

My rhubarb crowns have excelled this year - it is coming to the end of the season so I must get out there and pick a load for the freezer, if this rain ever stops.

And this year, for the first time, I have managed to pick the blackcurrants before the birds demolished them all. A couple of sessions, freezing the first lot whilst waiting for the rest to ripen. About a pound and a half - enough for my first attempt at blackcurrant jam. If I thought the raspberry set quickly this is the Usain Bolt of jam making, needing only a couple of minutes of rapid boiling.

Just over three pounds of fruity loveliness to join the two and half pounds of raspberry jam...

What's It Mean Then?

2011-07-31T11:55:00.004+01:00

At times it feels as if I am force-feeding myself with words. I am full up but more keep coming.

I was getting through 500 a day, but I have reduced it to 250 on more days now. This is because, unlike me, the cardbox has a limitless capacity for gobbling up what I feed it. I am giving it not only the words I miss (known but not got and never seen before in my life) but also ones that were guessable, just to reinforce them in my memory.

My hit rate varies between 70-90% on the 'new' words, and I am about 90% on the cardbox. It does seem to take 3 or more goes at getting some of them fixed in my brain. And some I totally despair of ever getting right on a consistent basis.

It is nice, however, to be doing something new rather than keep going over the same stuff . There are some really neat words that I may never get to play :)

I hit the 35000 mark yesterday...

A Month of Scrabble

2011-07-25T21:13:00.004+01:00

So I guess some people might be interested in my scrabble progress.

After my success in the Scottish NSC heat I returned to the Dewar Centre in Perth to play in the Scottish Open a couple of weeks later. As fate would have it we were playing in the same room again - not where it normally was held. It occurred to me after day 1 that I had never lost a game in that room, 21 wins out of 21. I continued the run for the next 3 games, but unfortunately Allan beat me narrowly in the next game to overtake me on spread. We both won our penultimate game, meaning we played each other for the third time to decide the title. This game went a lot better - 3 bonuses by move 6 saw me run away with it.

The UK Masters at the start of July. Allan and I went down to Stone by train the day before. Mixed fortunes here. I was still in contention with three games to go, but when I lost to Wayne it was all over for me. I finished sixth on 9.5/16 to at least hold my rating.

Finally on to the Scotland BEST group final, best of 11 against Allan. I was never behind, with Allan catching me back up, so yet again it came down to the last final game. I was ahead on spread so started the deciding game. And raced away..

I had already decided to not go to the BMSC this year, having the NSC semis and team final in September, and now also a best of 15 quarter final against Wale Fashina to fit in in August.

I have received an added incentive to keep studying after Theresa's excellent result in the UK Open. Onwards and upwards with the 8s... 7411 to go.

Waiting For A Bus - Part 2

2011-07-10T15:50:00.007+01:00

My sixth pair of socks were completed at the end of June. Advanced to a pair with a lace pattern, although it was with thicker sock yarn so relatively quick to do. This was the Southwestern socks pattern by Wendy D. Johnson on ravelry.com, using Spunky Eclectic Super Sport (100% merino DK). I just love some of the sock yarn names. This was one of the yarns that I bought from a 'raveler' from the U.S.A. I was a little disappointed in the number of breaks in the yarn, but it is lovely and soft and the colours are very pretty.

Then another spurt on the KF jacket. The fourth band of stars has now been completed. At about 40 minutes a row when I have all three sets of colours on the go. The main reason that I bought the yarns from the above lady was for three different 100% wool yellows she was selling, and they do look good.

Another break before I start on the fifth band, using the peach silk/wool/cashmere for the star outlines. Hopefully it will then get a little quicker as I go over the top, dividing it to do the left and right fronts separately.

And currently working on my seventh "pair" of socks - okay, so the colours are a foot length out but opinion is divided on whether this matters. Another leap forward. Long socks, cables and lace, and my own design using the kauri knits font by kauricat. I am thinking of improvements to this pattern now that I am knitting it. First sock done and reached the heel on sock number two. Using Noro Kureyon sock yarn. Hopefully I have enough - I kept weighing the yarn as I was doing sock number one, but on our probably not very accurate old-fashioned kitchen scales. I should find out in a few days time...

Waiting For A Bus - Part 1

2011-07-10T12:23:00.021+01:00

Time passes and edible garden grows...

The mangetout are in full production - picked about 10 oz so far. Luckily we like them as we will be eating an awful lot of them in the coming weeks.

The peas, looking unamazingly similar, are beginning to fatten up. And still a lot of flowers on them. Just need some sun to go with the automatic watering system, aka as rain...

A few of the red onion sets I planted are now bulbing up nicely despite throwing up flower spikes while I was in Malta in May. A few of the flower spikes are now beginning to actually flower...

The onion seeds I planted are performing with variable results. I have precisely nine bulbing onion plants that have survived so far and are looking pretty pathetic.

The spring onions are faring a little better, but still nowhere big enough to attempt to harvest. I sowed another row which again have germinated quite well but that is about as much as they have done so far. They are now surrounded by the pak choi which I thinned and replanted. Having never eaten pak choi I just hope we like it if they all survive and thrive!

The pickling onions are the stars of my allium world. We haven't finished the ones I pickled last year yet, but they are very good.

The leeks are also doing okay - I have learnt from last year not to panic too much if they are not the size of pencils yet. Still plenty of time before they need to be transferred to the veggie patch to overwinter. The first-sown carrots are coming along well.

The dwarf purple beans are beginning to put on a spurt of growth and a few flowers can be seen. They were last year's stars of the veggie patch, along with the runner beans. Talking of which, I reduced the number of those that I planted from last year and restricted myself to the better of the two varieties grown last year, Red Rum. Inspection shows that a couple have made it up to about four feet up their supports, although one has decided it prefers to grow sideways into the mangetout...

I have lost two of the tomato plants that I planted at the back of the veggie patch, but I have gained one self-seeded one. So eight very healthy looking plants. I still have more than that 'surviving' in the sunroom - I think the time has come to plant them out or throw them out. Time is running out for Reg to get his polytunnel in place...

The curly kale that I never pulled out last year has come back stronger than ever. It is obviously a tough cookie, surviving the onslaught of the caterpillars last year, and then the two foot of snow over winter!

The rhubarb is gigantic. A couple of picks so far, but I really need to keep harvesting it. I just need to get to it!

The last, but definitely not least, of the crops in the veggie patch is the potatoes. Both those I planted and those that still keep coming up everywhere else. It's the same in the fruit tree bed. I have started harvesting those. This has given me access to tie the new growth of the fruit trees to their canes. At some point soon I need to get up my courage to prune the side shoots...

The salad crops in the raised planters are also cranking up after a slow start. In fact, the first sown rocket and spinach has bolted but the next sowings are coming on well. And a second sowing of radishes.

And the winter sown savoy cabbages are taking over the world...

Longest Rainy Day

2011-06-21T21:58:00.007+01:00

I've picked a great year to resume knitting. So it is meant to be a winter pastime, but tell the weather that. Been peeing down continuously here today...

I have just finished my fifth pair of socks - and I am getting better.

These used the Skew pattern by Lana Holden via Ravelry.com. An interesting pattern but very easy, just need to concentrate on what row you are on. Certainly my best effort to date.

So I have now progressed from Jean's basic top-down pattern (one 4-ply and one DK with two colours), a toe-up disaster pair with a 'waste' odd ball of dk, an OK toe-up pair with left-over DK from a jumper and now these with basic 4-ply sock wool. I have learnt how to knit on two circulars, almost mastered kitchener stitch and Judy's magic cast on.

I have been building up a good stash of quality sock yarns via Ebay and fellow Raveler destashes (I am picking up the lingo). So far I have resisted Wollmeise, which appears to be THE yarn - but it is very difficult to get unless you pay way over the odds. It can't be that good, can it?

My KF jacket is on hold again. I had resumed, but then ran out of the blue I was using for the current row of star outlines. More should be on its way from Inner Mongolia!

I have fitted in some scrabble. The Scottish NSC heat just over a week ago, and for the second year in a row I won with a 7-0 record. Simon almost beat me, having been ahead for the whole game except for the last move after I had made a second bonus opening leaving one tile in the bag. My final bonus played in both places - phew. I also was very pleased to spot (J)OL(L)ITIES in the game against Kate when OILIEST/IOLITES did not play. The Border Reivers (Allan, Stuart and me) also won the team event to progress to the finals later in the year.

Two days later I played my round 3 BEST match against Amy. I won 5-1, but it may have been very different. Game 1 and I got off to a flier, but Amy almost caught me back up before I surged ahead again - certainly had me worried. Game 2 was close, but a couple of phonies by Amy probably cost her that game. In game 3 I got away with ENTOTO(M)Y (misremembered TENOTOMY) but Amy was 140 ahead after CRAZIES and held onto it until I hit back with two consecutive bonuses (REALIGN (74) and then hooking FlASHED on to the triple for 110) to take a 25 point lead and empty the bag. With INSVWY she should still have won if she blocked my WINY for 36 on a triple but I think she was in shock so I scraped home by 9. A scrappy game 4 that Amy won when she had a play out of MIRAGE which I couldn't score enough in blocking it. Game 5 was mine all the way - a nice spot of DAMASSI(N) near the end and Amy conceded. Game 6 also went my way, opening with QUIRKY for 64 and then a bonus on move 2, a mid game bonus and a 9x final play of FID(D)LeRS for 158 saw me score 616 to Amy's not many.

I have only got out in the garden a couple of times. One foray up the high bank to pull out nettles and cleavers - it looks a lot better. Yesterday I got in a full day - mainly spent on the last section of the LBE, removing weeds, stone and clay from the bottom couple of feet, but ending with some enjoyment. A trip to Edrom nursery on Saturday so some planting. Two unusual yellow flowering hardy impatiens, both of which I managed to split into two .And two more saxifrages, one of which I could split, the other I didn't want to risk yet. And a few other things that still need to be planted... I also relocated a patch of baby hellebores that I was pleased to spot as their parent was long dead.

Now I am back to weather forecast watching. Rain doesn't look like stopping up here for the foreseeable future...

Early To Rise

2011-06-06T07:52:00.006+01:00

I woke up really early this morning and just couldn't get back to sleep. So I decided to get up at 5.24 according to our bedroom clock. Cleared cardbox and went out to photograph the garden as although it was cloudy there was also no wind. And then just as I was finishing the sun came out and transformed the morning. Blue skies, birds singing, glad to be alive drinking coffee on the lawn morning. I fear Paul has missed it as it is clouding over again now and the trees are starting to sway.

The current highlights in the garden are:

Where does the time all go? Nearly three weeks since my last post and what have I done?

Well, I finished knitting the jumper that I had started and taken with me to Malta, and am currently wearing it. I love it. And then I knitted a matching pair of socks with most of the left over wool. And I have almost finished knitting another jumper in super chunky Araucania limari yarn knitted on 9mm needles - super quick. It will definitely not be worn until it gets a lot colder - winter dog walking insulation. Body finished, turtle neck completed and have almost finished the first sleeve. I will get back to my KF jacket at some point but Paul made me clear away all the yarn from the sunroom when we had a house load of guests for a BBQ and to watch the Jim Clark rally that came past our house again, and I haven't got around to laying it all out again yet.

And I have been gardening.

A couple of days weeding the long bank extension that had run amok whilst I had been away, trying to get it looking respectable before the JCR. And then pulling out the weeds I could see I had missed during a break in the JCR. It was torture just looking at them.

Veggie patch is now almost back under control. Weeded. Potatoes earthed up as best I could. Dwarf beans planted out. So far nine tomato plants in the ground, following Monty Don's advice to plant them deep - so mine are about half buried. Still have fifteen that need to be rehomed... The peas and mangetout are flowering away merrily, and I have sown the remainder of the row directly into the ground. The onion sets that I planted have already bolted and no signs that they are bulbing up. Bamboo wigwam erected ready for the runner beans - had a better success rate with the last ones sown with four out of five germinating.

Raised planters also in better shape now. Lettuces thinned out and two more rows from the thinnings. More rocket, spinach, spring onions, radishes sown. First sowings of carrots and pak choi. I think I may give up on trying to grow bulb onions altogether as they obviously don't like me - I sowed three rows earlier in the year and I may be lucky to have a dozen in amongst the weeds. The pickling onions and leeks that I sowed at the same time are doing fine.

I think today may be a pottering in the garden day - or I may get the energy up to scale the high bank on yet more nettle removal.

Malta 2011

2011-05-18T10:27:00.002+01:00

An early start on the 5th to catch the 6.55 flight to Malta, still trying to throw off the cold I had acquired the week before. Met up with Simon, Sheena and Margaret at the departure gate.The flight wasn't fully booked so Simon and I had a spare seat between us to put our books etc. on.

Was met at the airport by Geoff and Tess and, after a detour to buy a new coffee percolator, was safely deposited on their sofa by the early afternoon.

The European Open commenced the following afternoon. It did not go well for me - a combination of poor picks and not playing at my best meant that I was never in contention. Tess, on the other hand, was flying high and had won the event with games to spare. After staying late to help Amy clear the equipment away we met up with Tess's family and she treated us all to a celebration meal.

The following day was the Brousson Invitational Scrabble Tournament. Amy, John Chew, Mohammad Sulaiman, Simon, Cecil, Vince, Kevin, Mikki, myself and Tess. We each put 10 euros in the kitty and played 6 swiss rounds followed by a king-of-the-hill. Prizes agreed beforehand - 50/30/20. Amy was on fire. having beaten Simon in their BEST match in the morning, winning 6-1, Tess second 5-2 just pipping me on spread. Mikki in fourth meant a complete thrashing of the weaker sex :)

We had a lazy next day, but a quick trip to the Medina glass factory and I spent my winnings on a very pretty small vase.

Thursday was a trip over to Gozo, Geoff and the dogs (Poppet, Lily and Smudge) replacing Mikki and Mohammad from the BIST line-up. A very pleasant day - a couple of drinks overlooking the sea, then lunch and then off to the beach in the afternoon. Ice-cream, another beer, a few concensus games and a quick paddle. It was warmer than last year but I still opted to not go for a swim...

The Malta International Scrabble Open started the following afternoon.

After having only a third of the available blanks in the EO the tile gods decided to laugh at me from on high. They gave me every single one on the Friday but with such utter dross that I was only 4-3 at the end of play. Hence my report will be somewhat lacking in detail as I was beginning to lose the will to carry on...

But carry on I did.

Lucky T-shirt donned on the Saturday and with more balanced racks but fewer blanks I rallied back to 11-6 at the end of day 2. Still 3.5 wins behind Evan but now well positioned to make third or even second place. The lucky (and not too smelly) T-shirt was going to be worn again the next day!

Tess first game up on the Sunday. It did not start well but I was feeling a lot more focused and soon my luck changed. A pivotal moment was when Tess laid SHRIGhT on the board for a good score, but had doubts and picked it back up. Then RIGHTeS(T) went down, opening a 9x. She changed her mind again and finally played bRIGHTS for a much lower score, leaving me the E I required for a high scoring DISTHEN(E) rather than a face-value H(A)NDIEST. I had enough ammunition to go on to win the game.

Next was Terry Kirk, who had beaten me on day 1 after I had played a phony and then got severely punished for my mistake. A bonus in the last quarter of the game should have seen him home and dry. My rack of DEEENNS and I made the correct decision of playing D(O)EN, leaving the N as the floater rather than D(O)NE and a good pick of COT. An eternity passed waiting to see if Terry would block the N but he opted to score. The bonus went down giving me a 17 point lead with three tiles in the bag. A long hold from Terry and then he challenged. I knew I must be safe with a playout from the last three tiles. Phew!

Evan next - an opportunity to close the gap, which was now down to 2.5. And I took it - the game is on centrestar - game 20.

I was beginning to believe I was in with a chance.

Last game before lunch, Yi En Gan. I had also lost to him earlier by 7 points when he had inadvertently created a 9x spot, and I had played for and picked the A I needed for ANTID(O)RA/(MAUN)D and he blocked it again in blocking a different opening :( This game went much more smoothly for me, countering his bonuses with my own higher scoring ones and picking up a couple of 5-point penalties to boot (BOOMINGS and ARCHAIZE).

I really didn't want a lunch break. Not only that but before we resumed there was a raffle that I thought was never going to end. Like a recurring nightmare every time I thought it was over another colour and number was boomed out over the microphone. However, eventually it did come to an end.

Carmel Dodd, who had been having a very good run, next. But this time the tile gods smiled on me and I ran out an easy victory.

I was now the only person who could catch Evan, 1.5 games behind with two to play. My fate was in my own and Evan's hands.

Game 23

I spent far too long trying to decide what to play when I had both blanks, and eventually just plonked something on the board as I was down to about 6 minutes and Evan plays like a rocket. Luckily my racks balanced and I could play reasonably quickly for the remainder of the game and held on to win.

Game 24

What a relief to see a bonus on my opening rack - I think only my second of the whole tourney. It certainly settled my nerves and probably did the opposite for Evan. It is interesting being annotated - I was far from convinced that MONEY(I)NG was good but was concerned that I could look rather foolish if it was and I didn't play it! It did help that I had a healthy lead. Apart from that I did play reasonably well...

So I ended the trip on a high. A celebratory meal at Avenue on the Sunday night with Tess, Geoff and John, and a thankyou meal at Mamma Mia on the following night.

The diet will be starting soon...

Do Knitters Dream In Colour?

2011-05-04T15:33:00.004+01:00

So I made a decision to check out a local knitting group at St. Abbs last Saturday.

And then came down with a cold.

However, it didn't seem too bad in the morning so I set off with my latest partly finished sock and a pack of tissues stashed in my handbag. I had stayed up the previous night to get the heel turned so that I was at the ankle - my first attempt at toe-ups...

A morning of coffee, scones and knitting. There were two other knitters there along with our hostess and a non-knitting friend of hers over on holiday. I felt a little out of it, not knowing anyone but I guess that was inevitable. Will I keep going - time will tell, as I cannot take anything too complicated to do there.

However, they did introduce me to the website Ravelry.

And now I have wasted days on there, logging my yarns, browsing patterns, yarns, groups and forums. And drooling over other people's yarn stashes. And discovering that you can buy yarn from people who are 'de-stashing'. Am waiting to hear back from a lady in the USA on postage costs for a wish list of stuff I just can't get here and the pound is quite strong at the moment so it may be cost effective...

But I'm off to Malta tomorrow - up at some God awful time to catch a 6.55 flight from Edinburgh - so I need to get back in to scrabble mode and stop dreaming of beautiful colours and soft fluffy fibres.

Seeing Stars

2011-04-27T21:06:00.004+01:00

Two weeks on from the planning stage and I have completed 60% of the back...

Changing yellows every two rows.

Changing greys every three rows at most.

I have used silks for the star outlines.

In theory I only have three colours per row but at times on the first star I was juggling ten balls of wool! Now I prewind the silk into balls of four strands and life is a lot easier.

And it looks pretty good on the wrong side too...

But I have now reached the point of casting on the stitches for the sleeves. Three more star repeats for each sleeve.

So I have managed to get the extra stitches on the needle - just. But I am concerned about how squidged it is. When it comes to stranding the yarn at the back when I start the stars it may well pucker so it is all systems stop.

Luckily I foresaw this may happen and have bought some 48" circular needles, but they probably won't arrive until I get back from Malta.

The Long Bank Massacre

2011-04-21T22:08:00.004+01:00

The time had come.

Loppers, secateurs and garden saw...

The start of the long bank dead shrub clearance.

Three hebes and a senecio down.

And a lot of cleared space.

A nicer day today - procrastinating over the fate of the mahonias and photinia.

Gentle weeding of the long bank extension, potted up a few self seeded heucheras and relocated a lot of baby foxgloves up to the high bank. Still got a load more for when I am ready.

I am back on to pea watch. Two weeks on from the first sowing (old seed) and only about a third of them have come up. But the mangetout (new seed) sown the following day are almost all up and thriving. So a trial now - I have sown all the peas that I saved from my own crop last year. And I have extended the trial to the runner beans and dwarf beans - pots sown with both old beans and my own saved ones. Oh the excitement of it all :)

Kaffe Fassett Outlined Star Jacket - Planning Stage

2011-04-14T14:02:00.009+01:00

I gained a lot of confidence from knitting my first KF jacket and immediately started scouring his Glorious Knitting book for what to do next.

And this is what I decided on...

I just loved the vibrancy of the yellows, from pale primroses through to in your face golds, with the calming influences of the greys stars. Contrasting colours for the star outlines in pastel shades was recommended. He says the colours are based on seeing the costumes and sets of the Peking Opera.

Design put into spreadsheet and play around with the colours. It may look a little odd but it is knitted in one piece - front, back and sleeves.

Unfortunately I possessed very little in the way of the required colours in my stash - a couple of odd balls of yellow and a few part balls from some of the mixed lots.

So on to ebay and start bidding on required colours/yarns. A sustained campaign over several weeks with some failures and a few side-tracks but I now have enough to go for it. What I have found is that not much yellow yarn is on there, and what is is keenly fought over. Bodes well if I want to sell on what is left over. And I also bought the last of what I needed from The Black Sheep, along with a few other odd balls...

And here it is - jacket in kit form:

Background (needs about 600g total):
Some rather strange gold/yellow tricel/nylon £0.99 120g
Patons Cotton in a gold/yellow £3.20 200g
Silk/Wool/Cashmere bright yellow £6.65 150g
Silk/Wool/Cashmere yellow £6.45 150g
Debbie Bliss Cashmerino chunky mustardy yellow £6.51 150g
Debbie Bliss Pale Yellow cotton £3.33 200g

Stars (needs about 400g total):
DK dark grey £2.80 100g
DK grey/white mix £2.58 100g
Variata flax/wool silvery grey £2.20 400g

Star Outlines (needs about 200g total):
DK wool mauve £1.40 50g
DK acrylic/mohair mauve £1.56 150g
Silk/Wool/Cashmere turquois/coral/pink £6.23 150g
Debbie Bliss peachy orange cotton £6.50 200g
Jaeger 100% silk pale blue £12.50 275g (bargain- retailed at about £10/50g)

I also have got the buttons... an absolute snip at £1.24 and enough here for 3 jackets.

And not forgetting the postage - £19.15, although I take that into account when I am bidding. The silk/wool/cashmere appropriately has come all the way from Inner Mongolia!

A total outlay of over £100 plus some oddments I already had, but I will use under half of it on this project...

Busily Doing Nothing

2011-04-06T11:15:00.006+01:00

I really don't know where the time goes. I would never be able to fit work in again...

A few busy days in the garden followed by an enforced rest due to gale force winds. It is now very clear that I have lost a lot of shrubs due to the severely cold winter. The long bank has suffered badly - most of the hebes, both mahonias, the photinia as well as the previously mentioned brooms. And in the herb patch all the lavenders and both rosemaries.

However, I decided to continue on my plan for the high bank rather than attack the long bank at this time. I fully removed the previously hacked back spiraea - a good physical work out with fork, secateurs and loppers but eventually I prevailed. Paul volunteered for more slash and burn duty. The honeysuckle that I guess was meant to climb up the telegraph pole but actually layered more and more growth on top and forwards had to go - every year I tried to control it and dismally failed. And then the spiraea behind it that had been neglected due to previous lack of access. Once Paul had finished I made an attempt at removing the root but even after a good hour of digging around it it remained solid as a rock. I satisfied myself with just digging over and removing as much root as I could find in front of it.

The second acer that was living in a pot has now been relocated into the cleared space.

The work done has completely changed the view of the left side, now allowing me to see the previously hidden top of the high bank, which necessitated one more trip up there for bramble control. I plan to split and transplant primroses/primulas and a lot of foxglove seedlings that I have found in the LBE up the top to supplement the daffodils and bluebells that are already up there. A trip to Lamberton/Edrom nurseries is also on the cards as the area is well suited to some woodland plants - damp shade...

I am really loving looking at the LBE - almost every day I see something new flowering or bursting through the ground - and not just weeds :)

On the knitting front I finished the Kaffe Fassett inspired jacket and now have to decide whether to change the buttons. I didn't win the buttons I originally wanted on Ebay so bought some others. And just after I had sewn them on I got a second chance offer on the first ones! I decided to get them and they do look a lot more suitable...

I then embarked on my first pair of socks. The first sock is done and I have got to the toe of the second. I have found knitting on two circulars is a lot easier for me than a set of DPNs.

Another reorganisation of my wool stash and ebay buying strategy into colours. Not quite a rainbow - red, orange, yellow, green, blue and mauves/purples and black, white, pink and brown... I have been busily buying different shades of yellows and oranges in different fibres ready for my next couple of KF projects.

The bridge season is coming to an end. A topsy-turvy season for Berwick A, but great relief on Monday when a winning draw in our penultimate league match meant we were safe from relegation. Great relief for our opponents too, who like us needed a single point for safety. It is going to make my captain's report at the AGM a lot easier...

Ongoing scrabble study and I hit the 30000 mark on 8s a while back. Now keeping cardbox under control, going back through 7s and revising 4s again. BEST match is organised for the 13th April and then off to Malta in May.

Mini Orchard Completed

2011-03-25T11:39:00.006Z

There has been much activity on the good weather days in the garden. And some on the not quite so good weather days.

The pear trees, gage and everything else I had ordered from J. Parkers arrived as a single delivery a week ago.

So straight on with the planting of the trees. And then trying to work out what pruning, if any, was needed. The conference pear had quite a few branches that I cut back. The Beth pear only had three branches above 18 inches and the Concorde a mere one...

The gage has been installed on the last remaining cane against the wall/railings.

So that completes the trees in the fruit tree bed - assuming they all survive! Still got space for some fruit bushes - I have planted two redcurrants that were cuttings from last year that had rooted. I have some rooted blackcurrant cuttings also in a pot but they will eventually go against the wall on the other side if they survive that long.

So far the only springing into obvious life is from the cherry tree.

I then quickly planted up the plug plant gentians which looked very healthy and monardas which didn't. I keep inspecting them to see if I can see any improvement - I will be lucky to get 4 out of 6 I reckon.

The next day was cold but I needed to plant the dicentras, paeonies and day lilies in the LBE.

However, the weather has improved this week and even Paul has been helping with removal of some of the dead shrubs and playing with bonfires to dispose of them. Two brooms out of the long bank and another small shrub from the high bank.

This then afforded a great opportunity with easy access to get him to cut the buddleia back there down to a stump.

Which in turn gave me the opportunity to relocate an acer from a winter broken pot...

I have done my annual snowdrop transplantation, adding small clumps to the trellis bed bank and the next couple of sections of the LBE.

The trellis bed itself has been tidied up.

Onion sets have been planted in the veggie patch.

The gooseberry bushes have been pruned - I am covered in little scratches now.

I have started on the high bank tidy up - autumn debris removal, nettle and bramble control. It really does get slightly better each year which is just as well as I get achier each year :)

I severely pruned back a couple of spiraeas and made one trip to almost the top to remove an enormous section of an unknown shrubby tree that had split under the weight of snow in the winter. There is a dead looking berberis up there which needs tackling. I am contemplating a total revamp of the middle section, which is still more or less the same as when we moved up here. Apart from three very nice paeonies the plants are not really to my liking. Hacking back the spiraea in the middle has opened it up and I think I may remove it permanently...

The garden is starting to get very colourful. Spring heathers, crocuses, daffodils, tulips, primroses... But my pick of the lot has got to be the hepatica, unfortunately now beginning to fade but I captured it at its peak...

The Pear Trees Cometh

2011-03-14T12:01:00.005Z

So why did I say I was ahead of last year???

It was a cue for winter to return.

The only thing actually done in the garden was the planting of a Victoria plum (again from Morrison's) as a cordon on one of the remaining canes.

Still, the knitting is progressing. Front, back and first sleeve completed, and second sleeve well underway.

Word study also plodding along. Should hit the 30000 mark on 8s this week. More motivated now that the WSC has been confirmed (Warsaw in October) and Michael Tang's exciting announcement w.r.t. his expansion of the Causeway scrabble tourneys.

I have now ordered the four remaining fruit trees I wanted from J. Parker. An Imperial gage for the last cane and three pear trees (Beth, Concorde and Conference).

I am planning to grow the pears as dwarf pyramids - they are on Quince C 'dwarfing' rootstocks. So I have wasted a hell of a lot of time looking on the web for reasonably priced 2.4m tree stakes. And failing dismally - they are either cheap and the postage extortionate or expensive to start with. I really don't want to pay more for the stakes than the trees cost!

I have finally decided to improvise. I will get shorter stakes (1.2m) from Cheviot trees this afternoon and make my own taller stakes from binding three 8 foot bamboo canes together and hopefully attach them behind the tree stake.

It is getting a little late for planting pear trees, but as J Parker have taken the money, which they normally only do as the plants are dispatched, they are hopefully making their way here as I type.

All Systems Go

2011-03-05T11:20:00.011Z

The apple trees (aka big sticks) eventually arrived. We had been phoned on the Friday to say they had just been dispatched and would be here on Monday. I was a little peeved as they had missed the good weather window. Luckily we did not have a hard frost and the ground was not frozen so in the morning I went out and dug 10 holes ready for planting. They arrived in the afternoon. I needed Paul's help to hold them at the angle of the canes while I refilled the holes and tied them loosely in place. Once in I tied them to the canes more securely and after checking my bible lightly tip pruned them to a suitable bud. Last job was to get the chicken wire in place to protect them from Jen and Poncho. This will have to be done better in the future as it is not rabbit proof...

I have a good selection with a long cropping season of August right through to the end of the year, and some storing in to the next spring:
Keswick Codlin - dual purpose
Belle de Boskoop - cooker
Saturn - dessert
King of the Pippins - dual purpose
Katy - dessert
Scotch Bridget - cooker
James Grieve - dual purpose
Suntan - dessert
Laxton Superb - dessert
Ellison's Orange - dessert

However, it will be 2013 before we should get any as my bible says to remove the blossom in the first couple of years to let the trees put their energy into growth...

I started weeding the LBE on Thursday. This hadn't been planned but on taking the dogs out at lunch time I had stopped to pick out a couple of weeds. And then I handed Jen over to Paul and just kept going. An hour and a half later and it looked a lot better.

I can now see more and more wild baby primroses coming through - the fruit of my labour last year in transplanting clumps from the rockery area. The pansies also seem to have spread their seed far and wide.

Yesterday was veggie patch day.

All the dead runner beans were unwrapped from the wigwams and obelisks and pulled out. Beds were weeded and forked over.

Cabbages were assessed and I now have one that is pickable, four that look as if they are attempting to form new heads and the rest were pulled out. Any greenery on them was bagged up and given to Margaret to feed to her geese. The curly kale looks as if it is re-sprouting - I have left it in but am not sure whether it is worthwhile.

I still need to hand weed that bed and around my disappointing leeks. Some look as if they may be worth picking, but the vast majority don't look much bigger than when I planted them.

The nettles are doing better :(

On the bright side, all three clumps of rhubarb are coming through strongly...

And I made a start on clearing the leaves and debris from the raised planters.

I still have a lot of last year's carrots unharvested and it looks as if a lot have survived the winter. They are pushing themselves out of the soil. I pulled one up and it tasted absolutely fine.

It may also be worth my time harvesting some of the larger onions that overwintered. And plant the Red Baron onion sets I bought a couple of weeks ago.

And my requested cow muck from Margaret has just been delivered - perfect timing...

I am ahead of last year , and this March I do not need to spend 30+ hours sifting topsoil and loading the fruit tree bed. I just hope the weather keeps behaving itself.

Going Green

2011-02-27T11:44:00.006Z

I admit it. I may have got a little carried away with Ebay.

But everything I have bought was a lot cheaper than if I had got it in a shop. And my pricing cost/ball includes postage.

And where it wasn't I found a great on-line shop to get it. For some reason people wanted to pay more for fancy sock wool on ebay than they could get it here in the sale. So I now have 2 balls of regia sudsee sock wool, one of Noro silk garden sock, a couple of balls of baby alpaca and one of extra fine merino dk.

I took it as a challenge to see how cheaply I could get some of the yarns. Since my last post on the matter I have won a few more loads...

Rowan natural aran silk yarns were originally over £5/50g ball. I found a couple of sites where I could get restricted colours at £4, and a couple where a very restricted colour range (browns/beiges) were £3 - excluding postage. My first 5 won balls (pink, cream and green) came in at £2.65/ball, the next four (dark pink which was nicer than the purply colour in the photo) at £2.54/ball but my coup d'etat was 7 balls of blue at £1.31/ball.

Another triumph was 600+ grammes of mixed mohair at 78 pence/ball.

My final bargains were some dk tweeds. I had spotted a series of badly marketed lots ending on a weekday lunchtime. Photos of two balls with tatty labels and description of merely knitting wool/yarn. They were actually selling 400-500g lots of 100% wool. I tested the water on the first lot, raising the bid by the minimum amount. And won it. I didn't like the colour of the second lot so skipped it, but tried the same tactic on the third. And won it. Someone had bid on the fourth lot and had put in a max bid. I decided it was still a good price and increased their bid. When they bid again I gave up on it, now costing almost twice as much as the first lot. But I won the fifth lot with no competition. And then I requested a combined P&P invoice and got another 2 quid off - just over 80p/ball. Still waiting for it to arrive via parcel post.

I gave up on the ten 2oz skeins of 1920's knitting silk - very hard to gauge its value. If it was in good condition it could be worth two to three times my maximum bid, if not it could be virtually worthless as far as knitting was concerned. I was outbid in the last minute, and although I still had time to fight I didn't...

Odd-balls jacket was completed last week.

But now I am on to one of my planned projects for all that I have been buying. The ultimate in odd-ball, mixed yarn designs. A Kaffe Fassett jacket. I have a couple of his books but have only ever attempted one of his designs before.

I have gone for his damask flower design applied to one of his jacket patterns, down-sized width-wise. I am using one of my new circular needles as advised as the front and back are worked in one piece and the weight will be very heavy on normal needles. Not sure how much wool it will take but I guess over a kilo even with the reduction in size.

I am half way up the second flower of the back and have already used 30 different yarns!

The photo makes it look as if the background is in mixed blues but it is actually currently using 26 different shades of green - one of the reasons I bought the mixed green oddments lot to go with the odd balls I already had.

I still have a few more I can add in.

A mix of yarns (wool, chenille, silk, mohairs and other man-made fibres) and plies combined to make an approximate chunky weight.

I need to keep track of what yarns/combination I have used, building up a list of each row as I go along, so that when I get to the front I can duplicate the background. As so many of the colours are so similar I have had to letter-label them - there are only so many ways of describing different subtle shades of green! I couldn't resist a QZ combo for one row...

They are laid out on the window sill...

The bottom flowers are the previously mentioned unpicked burgundy chenille. I decided it was a little too thick doubled so changed to one strand chenille and one strand red mohair for the upper petals of the first flowers. This worked well, so I am continuing that with a different colour mohair for each of the flower bands - currently a shocking pink.

I reckon about a month to completion...

Growing Canes

2011-02-24T22:46:00.012Z

I phoned up to arrange apple tree delivery for the latter part of this week. The weather forecast was for T-shirt weather - well, double figures.

And for once it was right. None of this moving back to never actually get the promised good days.

So on Tuesday I was out getting the canes in place. Every seventy five centimetres at 45 degree angles, tied in to the railings.

No delivery yesterday so I made a start on tidying up the long bank.

And still no sign of them today.

So I finished off the long bank autumn/winter debris clearance.

And now I can really see the bulbs

and signs of spring coming...

First Gardening Day of 2011

2011-02-17T22:56:00.008Z

I may have missed out on the fruit trees at Aldi last week but today Paul spotted that Morrisons had some. Morello cherry purchased for five quid.

Time to change the fruit-tree-bed-to-be to the fruit-tree-bed.

A little concerned at how many potatoes I found in digging the hole to plant it.

Pleased to re-discover a good sturdy stake, an old stocking used as the tree tie and one of the cut sections of chicken wire as a temporary rabbit/dog defence.

Having checked in my RHS fruit and veg bible it should not be pruned until the spring, when it will be reduced to a stick and two side branches which have been identified to be eventually trained as a fan.

One fruit tree in, ten apple trees still to be delivered...

In the rest of the garden

Snowdrops and more snowdrops... The high bank is covered. My colonisation program of the long bank and LBE has proved successful - another couple of years should see them all the way along. The only disappointment is the bank at the top of the drive where only three rather sad looking small patches have appeared so far. But my stocks at the back of the sheds are thriving so I will be able to dig up and redistribute another few hundred later in the year.

The winter aconites are flowering. I now have four decent sized clumps. Maybe still some more to come up at the back of the sheds. Not sure if I have enough to split them yet.

The hellebore that I thought had died last year has reappeared...

I really need to get out there soon to clear away all the autumn and winter debris. I almost made a start today after planting the tree as it was so mild, but it is also very wet and muddy. I have, however, managed to do a couple of inspections to see what else is happening. Daffodils, tulips and crocuses poking up. New signs of life from a lot of the perennials. Pulmonarias in bud despite looking dead and yukky with all their brown rotting leaves from last year needing to be removed. Hopefully I can get stuck in next week as the weather forecast is looking optimistic.

.

Win Some, Win Some More

2011-02-14T11:21:00.003Z

Where to start?

Berwick A played and won their third match of the season, leaping from the bottom of the second division league into fifth place with games in hand.

Ebay... Well, I have now bought :

400g grey aran (£4.40) that turned out to be fawn. I didn't mind but seller seemed a little upset when I down marked her on lot description in the feedback!

1230g assorted yarns (£10.11) - a good mix of colours, plies and textures

570g chunky/aran (£11.20) - five different colours

350g 4ply/dk mixed greens (£5.55) - included some chenille and a fancy silky yarn

300g+ mohair mix (£7.25) - pale green and a pretty pink

500g+ eyelash/feather fancy yarns (£7.20) - pinks, mauves, blues and blacks

610g small balls (£9.50) - 60 different colours

500g grey 30% wool aran (£17.55) - this was the colour on the photo!

I have started using some of it - doing one of the patterns from the Odd-Ball knitting book.

11 piece set of 60cm stainless steel circular needles (£7.00)

15 piece set of 80cm bamboo circular needles (£6.50)

I am particularly pleased with the bamboo needles having not won the previous 3 sets I bid on which were going for £8.00+. Patience paid off.

I am having great fun on ebay. The cut-and-thrust of competetive knitters. Watching the last few minutes of what you have bid on counting down. Watching the last few minutes of what you are 'watching' when there is a bidding war going on. One batch of wool leapt from £10 to £26.00 in the last two minutes...

Also I am quite interested in the fact that people overbid, obviously not researching what they are bidding on. There was one lot that I was watching that you can buy on Amazon for under £27.00 but has just sold at £31.00! I have two more lots I am currently winning on that end this afternoon and I have done my homework. Maximum bids at cheapest price found - n%, n varying depending upon how much I want it. Fingers crossed...

Finally, scrabble.

I had never done well in the Scottish Masters despite being the top seed every time I have played in it. Well, this year I lived up to my seeding. 9 wins out of 12. 12 blanks out of 24. The three games I lost were all blank-less, against Neil, Simon and finally Allan in the king-of-the-hill round when I was a game ahead and he needed to beat me by about 500 to overtake me. I had beaten Allan in the round-robin earlier in the day when he also had both the blanks.

Some nice bonuses played:

ORIGaMI, PINWEED and NONBaS(I)C against Ross

sHOWTI(M)E and PANDITS against Ricky

IN(U)NDATE and ELONGAT(E) against Stu

PALELIN(G) against Neil

POTIONs, INUNDAT(E) (again) and SCURVIES against Kate

(R)EASONER and SHERbE(R)T against Ray

PAIGLEs and OGREISM against Alan

ZENITHA(L), W(I)NTRiER, PERTAIN, TOURACO and DUELIST against Marion

INHERIT against Allan

zilch against Simon

CROZIER, BADGERS and TOLUENE against Amy

Two more against Allan but can't remember what...

And another stupendous sperm count of +1221...

Win Some, Lose Some

2011-02-03T11:20:00.002Z

I had a very pleasant long weekend at the Chester scrabble tourney. I didn't quite manage to win the required 14 games to maintain my rating but 13 was good damage limitation, and as the Phenomenon would say (but I can't, being a woman) had a massive sperm count amassing a spread of +1543. I lost my third game to Beverley when I emptied the bag taking off a spot for a 7 and she spotted a great outplay of (T)ONGSTER making 4 two-letter parallel words. I also lost to David Shenkin, giving him extra spread when I made a last-ditch attempt to win and he bonused out. My third loss was to Robert Richland - I had been keeping up with him as he played off all the goodies except the Q which he kindly let me have at the end when I had just opened a second bingo line keeping a bonus-friendly rack. My final loss was to Wayne Kelly by 2 points when I couldn't play out in 2 and score enough holding ACELNNV.

I did play some very nice bonus words over the weekend including GRYPHON(S) and picking INVADE? straight after playing MELTONS opening up a 9-x with S in sixth to finish the tourney with a 200+ win against Phil Robertshaw.

We finished playing at around 10 p.m. in the evenings which allowed some very enjoyable socialising, playing other board games and a few drinks...

I thoroughly recommend this tournament - 17 games, enough time to relax, very well run and the food at the hotel was excellent. Many thanks to Kathy and Dave for making my first outing here so much fun.

Now on to some things I have won!

Paul and I played in the Bobby Allan simultaneous pairs a week ago. We knew we had done well at the Berwick bridge club, scoring 73.7%. We then had a very nervous wait whilst all the scores from the other clubs came in. Our score came down slightly as the other results came in but the result was finalised yesterday and with 71.6% we finished well ahead of second place. I did notice that the pair in sixth place appear to be impostors, Stuart and Dave, as this was a mixed pairs event!

Having got back in to knitting and chatting to Mike O'Rourke over the weekend, who I was permanently sat next to other than the one game when I played him, he mentioned a friend of his who dyes and sells her own wool. On Monday he gave me a link to her website and I went and had a look. Glorious looking wool, but then I wandered off looking at other wool. And got drawn in to ebay...

After failing on a few bids I won my first auction this morning, 400 grammes of grey aran. My next deadline is in about another hour and a half. And I have bids in on another 8 lots and watching another 13! My mountain is in danger of becoming a range. However, I did see 'The Odd-Ball Knitting Book' on there and found I could get a second hand copy with free postage from Amazon at about the same price as just the ebay postage. It arrived today and is full of great ideas, with patterns for hats, gloves, scarves, socks, cushion covers through to a rather glorious looking entralac jacket.

Wool, Wild Birds, Wegetables and Words

2011-01-27T12:48:00.003Z

The new jumper was finished last Friday - 2 weeks from design to completion. I am very pleased with it - a great way of using up a lot of leftover balls and part balls of wool. I knitted the sleeves 'in sync' as it was a bit touch and go whether I actually had enough wool in a few of the colours and didn't want to have to undo too much if I ran out. As it was I was okay but only had a few inches to spare on a couple of the zigzags! I am sure that the same pattern could be used to give very different effect jumpers if done in pastels or different shades of a single colour. I may well try out this theory at some time with other colours - I have a lot of greens, yellows and browns for an autumn version...

I did an inventory of my wool mountain last weekend while Paul was away. The sitting room was filled with bags retrieved from two of the spare bedrooms and I emptied the camphor chest that is my main storage area. I now have a file with it all listed by type, colour and weight. The kitchen scales were kept busy weighing odd balls and groups of mohair greys etc. It has all been re-bagged into (I hope) more sensible groupings. Over 10 kg of assorted yarns. I also unpicked the back of a chenille 'jumper' from years back - I had not appreciated that chenille came in different plies and had tried to knit a cotton chenille pattern with something nearer to chunky weight!

New jumper has been started. I had four balls of a scarlet boucle type wool and three balls of a matching wool with gold threads in (along with some balls of blue and grey) which I bought many years ago from an oddments bin but could never decide what to do with it. I found the pattern booklet for that type of wool and there was a pattern I liked for a lacy jumper that only required four balls main and two contrast so off I went. It is a pain to knit with - more so because of the pattern having blocks of alternating rows with y.r.n. p2tog and y.fwd sl1 k1 psso which isn't so easy with bobbly yarn but I guess that is why I don't need so much as plain jumpers...

~~~~~

The bird feeding station is a roaring success after some early setbacks - namely a pheasant attacking it. We still get the occasional pheasant attempting to fly on to the seed tray, flapping wildly and falling off.

After complaining about the neglected nyjer seeds the goldfinches are now arriving in flocks. They are extremely feisty, chasing off other birds and giving me great entertainment. Lots of squabbles amongst themselves too - they like to control the seed tray against other invaders, running across it to fend off other incoming birds. Not much scares them away. The tits are very different, generally flying in, grabbing a seed and straight off again.

I am not good at recognising many species and now have my Scottish Birds book close at hand. So far I think I have seen chaffinches, goldfinches, greenfinches, siskins, blue tits, coal tits and/or marsh tits and/or willow tits (less likely), possibly long-tailed tits, robins, blackbirds and sparrows. We are extremely lucky here in having a great variety of habitats nearby - river, woodland, farmland and hedgerows.

~~~~~

I am starting to think about the garden again. New spreadsheet created for 2011 listing all my vegetable seed. I have bought some pak choi, spring onions and mangetout to add to my collection this year. Having seen a link in Town Mouse's blog for a seed catalogue I may be tempted to send off for a few more packets - maybe early tomatoes and giant radishes.

I seem to have recovered now from my fall on the ice and can now bend down without pain, so hopefully will manage to start tidying the garden in the next few weeks. If the mildish weather continues I will get the fruit-tree-bed-to-be ready and organise apple tree delivery.

I do appear to have lost a few shrubs this winter. The hebe that was badly damaged last year seems to have been killed of this time around. The photinia is also looking very sad. It does appear to be the evergreens that have suffered worst, although I am also worried about the saxifrages.

On a brighter note the snowdrops are pushing through with even the first signs of flower buds. There are also other signs of life from some of the perennials and other bulbs. Hellebores are flowering, daphnes are in bud and the primroses transplanted last year seem to be thriving with a couple in flower already and plenty in bud.

~~~~~

And finally scrabble. It is time to get back on the horse. Chester this weekend and as top seed I need to win 14 games out of 17 just to stay still. I have continued my studying 8s and have now reached 26750 at around the 90% correct mark before adding those missed to the cardbox. Scottish masters is two weeks later and that will see me meet the WSC qualification criteria.

We have been told the WSC details should be announced shortly - somewhere in Europe. I am guessing Romania but am probably totally wrong. I am more concerned about the dates with Causeway being at the end of November/start of December. However, Causeway is getting to be very expensive but the potential rewards are also going up. Life is full of tough choices...

Chirpy Chirpy

2011-01-17T13:33:00.008Z

Feeding the birds doesn't come cheap cheap...

They definitely have their favourites in the bird food offerings, starting at the most expensive. Have you seen the cost of mealworms? I'll leave those for others...

I could barely keep up with them on the sunflower hearts front, having to refill the feeder every day and sprinkle some on the wall for the blackbirds. The 1.75 kg bag did not last long. Expensive taste at over three quid a kilo at the local farm shop...

Number two on the list was the peanuts. These lasted approximately a day and a half between refills, but that may have been aided by them jamming in the feeder and me having to periodically give it a shake. I also rescued the broken mesh peanut feeder and improvised a lid from an old jam jar and threaded some garden string through it to hang it up.

My home made fat/bird seed coconut refills also went down well - the blackbirds could get at them. I also ran out of bird seed...

But the nyjer seed has been given a good ignoring. Although I saw finches they were the wrong kind (chaffinches) and were happily going for the sunflower hearts. I have on occasions seen green and/or goldfinches but not at my feeders.

I had hung a lot of the feeders on the railings outside the sunroom, but as we were hunkering down in the sitting room I was not getting to see the birds very much. I decided I wanted a bird feeding station. So I went on-line before the new year to investigate.

I eventually decided on this site, Wild Bird Direct, where I could also bulk buy bird food at more reasonable prices. Feeding station, ground feeder, 25kg of sunflower hearts, 12.5kg of bird seed and three packs of suet balls later...

It all arrived just over a week ago. The garden was still covered in snow and the ground was rock solid. Paul suggested I tried to see if it fitted in the parasol base, but the pole was to thin. I then decided to see if I could get it into the fruit-tree-bed-to-be.

Big mistake.

The paving slab on to the lawn was covered in ice. My legs went straight out in front of me and I went down on to my coccyx. The only thing that slightly aided my fall was my right thumb.

Not only costing me an arm and a leg but also a thumb and a bum!

The pain was excruciating if somewhat brief - I think I went in to some kind of shock. Luckily I didn't seem to have done too much damage and was able to get up. My thumb subsequently swelled up and I had an impressive bruise all the way around it. I still have a small bruise under the nail. Luckily, it hasn't stopped me knitting...

I thought the other part of my anatomy had escaped as I could sit down with no pain. However, I have since found that sitting from a prone position in the bath almost caused my to scream with the switch of weight on to that area. I am now feeling slight pain when I bend down :(

Anyway, over the last couple of days the weather has changed allowing all the snow on the garden to disappear. The ground is now very soft and the bird feeding station has been erected outside the back sitting room window. It hasn't taken very long for the avian population to find it and I can watch them from the comfort of the sofa...

Knitting-By-Spreadsheet

2011-01-08T12:06:00.006Z

Two pairs of leg warmers and four hats done and the quick fix of chunky wool and large needles has worn off. Time to get back to another jumper which I can start and then put down for another year or three before finishing it.

I had been doodling with various pattern ideas on some knitting graph paper when a light bulb moment occurred. Spreadsheets! Absolutely perfect for creating knitting patterns. The cells can be scaled to match the tension. And more colours than I could ever use.

The above is my first attempt and I have started knitting it.

But I am choosing my colours as I go along to use up odd balls in various shades of blues, pinks and purples. And I don't think the squiggly pattern section will work in double knitting - the detail won't show up well enough, more of a chunky pattern so that bit will be changed...

Clicking Needles

2010-12-26T14:41:00.007Z

I have rediscovered the joy of knitting.

And my wool mountain.

Having finished the jumper I started on a new project - leg warmers. I was quite pleased with my first effort. They have stretched more than I would like but are still fine over jeans and they do achieve their purpose. I will certainly have some more attempts until I get my perfect pattern.

Spurred on by the prolonged snow, ice and well below freezing temperatures here I decided the next must have accessory was a hat with ear flaps. I had first thought of Scandinavian-type ski hats. There are a surprising number of free knitting patterns on the web but you really need to know what you are looking for. In the end I found this site for South American chullos.

I used UK chunky wool and 5mm needles, which gave the correct 16 stitches/4 inches but only 20 rows/4 inches. However, this has still worked for the pattern and meant that it was very quick to knit!

The jumper wasn't bad either - my own design. Well, I made it up as I went along...

Life In The Snow Lane

2010-12-21T09:58:00.006Z

I start with an apology to Naween. There were annotation errors in our game so my assumptions of his missed bonuses were based on misinformation.

Now back to life at Todheugh.

Like the rest of the UK it involves snow.

We took the opportunity to go shopping on Saturday. A raid on M&S with some of the vouchers Paul won at Peebles the weekend I finally got home, to get some of the sugar and spice and all things nice. Then on to Tesco's and Aldi to get some of the necessities, including a duck and a three bird roast in case we didn't get another opportunity before Christmas.

This looks prudent now. Six inches of snow descended on Sunday. We had already cleared the path twice during the day, but when the next three inches came down in the afternoon we had had enough.

I will say it is nice dry fluffy snow, not the wet yucky stuff we often get. Even with the temperature dropping into minus double figures it has not developed the crunchy icy topping. It was very weird last night on the late night dog walk - a fullish moon and a white landscape gave so much light that torches were only needed for definition and self-preservation - although there has been virtually no traffic along here lately other than the postman.

The bridge club Christmas party that was scheduled for tonight has been cancelled. Paul is running an online individual tournament for us instead.

We are on constant bird feeding duty, having to refill the feeders regularly. I have also been shaking some out onto the patio walls as I have been feeling very sorry for the blackbird's miserable attempts to get at the feeders.

I have resumed my knitting - a good winter pastime when confined to quarters. I had completed the back of the new jumper and made a start on the front about 3 years ago. It was time to finish it. It should be completed today, as I only have about half the neck to go and then sew it up. I made a decision to do non-matching sleeves - same pattern, different colours. This may or may not work :)

And I am still studying albeit slowly, continuing on with eights.

A start has been made on getting the sitting room in a state fit to receive visitors, although MIL and FIL are not coming until nearer the New Year, assuming they can get here at all.

The Christmas tree was removed from storage yesterday and is now located in the sunroom, but is still undecorated.

However, we will never get it to rival the beautiful snow-covered real ones across the road.

Causeway 2010 Report Number Four

2010-12-10T10:17:00.004Z

I sat down to game 1 feeling fairly confident. My preparations had been better than ever before. I had revised well, not over-studying. I had got over any jetlag I may have had. I was feeling healthy - no sniffs or snuffles that I frequently pick up from the travel and air-con. And I had not spent the night before socialising in the bar.

So why did it go so horribly wrong???

I came out of day 1 shell-shocked. Only 2 wins. I have looked at the two annotated games. I didn't play that badly - indeed, I played a lot better than Naween. And I was unlucky to lose by 1 point to Howard in the last game of the day - a strategical decision to score that would have given me a narrow victory in the vast majority of cases rather than block one of the two bingo lanes...

Day two started a lot better but collapsed again in the afternoon but at least I had won more than I lost, 6-4 for the day. I was very pleased with PAR(V)OLIN(S) against Mohammed Sulaiman, a game where I got 5 bonuses.

Day three and I had all the top seeds to play. Target was to win half my games but I failed by one, only taking the scalps of Pakorn, Moses Peter and David Boys. I played a near perfect game against Nigel but to no avail.

Day four and I managed to scrape a majority for the day including a cracking game against Komol. This game was annotated but has not yet been posted on the website.

I needed to win all 6 on day five to maintain my rating. Well, I failed that at the first hurdle. And the second.

I should also have fallen flat on my face in game 3 of the day as well against Nsikak Etim. He started humming on my opening move so I asked him to refrain. On move 2 he played GIRNIES with the only playable bonuses through a D which I duly blocked. He then started to play SIGNIE(U)R until he realised it didn't fit and spent the next 5 minutes squirming. He was no longer humming. However, five moves later he had picked the first blank and pulled back some of his deficit. He got the second blank and mEATLOA(F) saw him take a 42 point lead leaving three in the bag. I held EFIRSTV and gave myself a chance with two Es and 2 Us unseen made an opening dumping the F, leaving a spot for a 7 with S in sixth. Nsikak played parallel to his bingo and I played out with REVUIST to win.

Game 4 against Chris May. This game was also annotated but has not been published yet, but I don't need to see it to know how poorly I played. As I sat down to play game 5 against Nathan Benedict I realised I had missed ODOMETr(Y). I probably missed a lot more too. Nathan did not take pity on me.

So on to the icing on the cake. David Boys said after this game that he guessed I was being slaughtered as he could hear me laughing, and it would have been very bad manners to do so if I had been winning. I had said to Adam as we sat down that this had been a tournament from hell for me and he said he hoped to continue the run, but I think even he was embarrassed by his 5 bonuses in the first 7 moves interspersed with two 40+ plays :)

My perception of the tournament was of how many games I was playing catch up from the very start, with my opponent bingoing on move 1 or 2 of the game (Chinedu, Marut, Joel, Naween, Edet, Dennis, Mohammed, David E, Brett, Pakorn, Moses, Brian, David W, Nigel, Theresa, Patrick, Bob, Ron, Jakkrit, Komol, Jason, Joanne, Chris, Nathan and Adam - 25 games out of 45). Naween and Brian both opened with a double, Komol with a hat-trick, Joel and Nathan with three out of four, Nigel two out of three and Adam - see above! I had four other games where my opponent played three-in-a-row bonuses against me (Marut, Panupol, Mikki and Robert Linn).

My blank count was 35/90.

So an extremely disappointing 19/45 and 38th place. Would I do it all again - of course, but maybe next time I will spend more time in the bar in the evenings!

Causeway 2010 Report Number Three

2010-12-08T12:39:00.010Z

I will come back to the actual scrabble when I eventually get home...

So Michael sent us to the airport early to ensure that we weren't late if the Causeway was jammed. I shared a car with Evan, Anand and Trevor Halsall and we arrived about five hours before my flight was due to depart. Evan and I had a beer and then Evan departed to find his gate. I located the smoking area and then organised a free wifi login.

I hadn't appreciated that my flight to Dubai was via Colombo and that is why it was scheduled to take a couple of hours longer than that leg had taken coming. The plane was packed and with each leg now taking under 4 hours there was no way I was going to get any sleep. They also didn't let us off at Colombo to stretch our legs which was a little annoying. The plane was about half an hour late getting in to Dubai which meant I had no time to spare getting to my connecting onward flight to Glasgow.

I thought I had lucked out on the next flight, having a window seat and two free seats next to me. But at the last moment a man came to claim the aisle seat. Still, I was able to curl up on the two seats and get some sleep.

An announcement came over the PA system as we were nearing Glasgow that the airport was shut and may re-open at 12.30 so we would circle for an hour in hope. But at 12.30 we were informed that the airport was remaining shut so we would be landing at Prestwick.

So we duly touched down at Prestwick at 13.00 and started to prepare to disembark but were told to stay where we were. The pilot was contacting head office to get instructions. In the meantime the plane was to be refueled in the hope of flying us back to Glasgow as and when.

At 14.30 we were informed that Glasgow had reopened, the safety video was replayed and then nothing happened. While we had been waiting the snow had got worse at Prestwick so we could not take off. The runway was duly cleared and Glasgow re-shut...

So three hours sat on the ground at Prestwick and the air crew were out of hours!

Right, we were all now to disembark and they would try to bus us to Glasgow.

An hour+ waiting for all the baggage to appear and my bag was one of the last on the carousel. I was beginning to worry that it hadn't made the connection at Dubai. So I clear immigration and customs and find that no buses had arrived yet. I was given a £10 voucher to get something to eat when the buses started to arrive.

So we were told to put our luggage in a lorry and get on a bus. And then we sat on the bus for another hour before it eventually left. Another hour and we arrived at Glasgow airport but then had another 10-15 minute wait for the luggage to arrive.

I had phoned Colin and Maureen when the bus had got to the M8. I set off for the terminal and managed to slip over on the ice. Luckily not too much damage but my right ankle is a little swollen. I didn't see Maureen so headed back to the pick up point, head down trying to pick my way through the ice, snow and slush trying to avoid getting too wet in my sandals but failing dismally with my left foot. I almost walked straight past Colin until he called out. Maureen had seen me heading towards the car so was also making her way back there.

We arrived back in Dumbarton at about 20.45, only about 9 hours late. It had taken as long to get from Prestwick to Glasgow as it had taken from Dubai to Prestwick!

So I am still in Dumbarton but will hopefully get home tomorrow if the temperatures rise above freezing as promised...

Causeway 2010 Report Number Two

2010-11-28T08:45:00.003Z

The Original Singapore Walks "Secrets of the Red Lantern" around Chinatown was very interesting. We were given quite a lot of useful information re which hotels to avoid (or not for some). Indeed we could even tell the locals a few things they didn't know the next day!

Talking of the next day I did not excel in the mini tournament, with Albert taking the honours and me in the middle (or maybe bottom of) the pack. The few racks that I noted that looked hopeful were actually useless so maybe I didn't actually play too badly and am saving up the blanks for next week. I can hope :) Even the move when I opened up a 9x and immediately got walloped still looks the right play to me. However, despite my dismal showing the day was enjoyable meeting up with old and making new friends. Cheah treated us all to dinner in the evening but I was not as adventurous as Diane and Albert.

I did not sleep well last night. Well, actually I slept well until 2.30 but got woken up by music outside. My earplugs were hurting and trying to reinsert them still could not stop the noise. At just before 4 am I decided to don my wrap-around skirt over my jimjams and go outside for a ciggie. I am almost on first name terms now with the Chinese cabbies that wait outside the hotel in the early hours! When I got back inside bliss - no more music. However, I still tossed and turned quite a lot and think I finally fell asleep after the call to prayers...

Today Albert and I planned on doing a harbour cruise. The hotel receptionist said we should prebook so we decided to do the afternoon one instead as we weren't sure if we would make it there in time in the morning. So we set off for Clarke Quay at 11 a.m. and had a wander around that area before going for lunch. I wasn't actually hungry but really just wanted a drink, an ice cream, a ciggie and a rest so told Albert to pick anywhere he wanted as long as I could get an ice cream. So eating place picked, menus given, drinks ordered but no - ice cream finished for the day! I suggested rescinding our drink order and going elsewhere but was told I could buy an ice cream at the 7-11 and eat it there. Probably saved a fortune.

We weren't entirely sure where the South Marina pier was that we were supposed to get the boat. The people at the restaurant didn't know either. The map on the brochure wasn't very helpful other than giving us a vague idea. So we set off. And it looked as if it was about to bucket down any moment so we decided to head for the Marina Bay MRT bus stop were there was a pickup point. We got there with 10 minutes to spare and waited a further 15 after the supposed pick up time. Then as we could see a road sign for the south marina we decided to walk. And walk. And walk. Through the construction site that is happening there. Eventually a sign for the pier and we arrived just as the boat was pulling away. Luckily we hadn't paid up front and if they phone to try to get the 'cancellation' fee they may have a long wait.

So I now have a big blister under my left heel and a small one on my right heel. Albert wandered about the harbour while I investigated the buses (or actually bus) back out of the middle of nowhere. I then got the MRT back to Little India while Albert, whose earlier blister has healed, decided to keep walking.

I am feeling a little better now after a nice long shower and am going to have a quiet rest of the day and prepare for the next adventure of the number 170 bus to JB tomorrow.

Causeway 2010 Report Number One

2010-11-26T06:31:00.004Z

For a change I made it to Colin and Maureen's on Tuesday with no mishaps - no overheating car and not a flash flood in sight.

It turned out that Robert (son of the above) was also going to the airport the following day. And then it turned out he was on the same flights as me, but he was continuing on to Brisbane. I had already checked in on line before I left home so we were not sitting together - which turned out well for us both on the first leg of the journey to Dubai as we both had two empty seats next to us so could stretch out for the journey. I think I must have relaxed too much as I discovered on the second leg that I had left my headphones somewhere. I was, however, more concerned that my power cable for this laptop did not seem to be working - neither on the plane nor in the airport. The flight on to Singapore was as bad as the first leg was good for us both. I had a snorer in the aisle seat and a deaf man next to me - at least he could sleep through having his head phones on loud but unfortunately I couldn't.

I had investigated on-line getting to my hotel on the MRT and once I found out that I needed to get the skytrain to terminal 2 all went smoothly. EZLink card purchased and off I went. For once my errant sense of direction behaved itself on exiting Little India station and I was heading in the right direction towards the hotel. Which was just as well as the first spots of rain were starting to fall. By the time I turned into Perak Road the thunderstorm was in full flow but the walk had been mainly under cover.

I am very happy with the hotel - all of my research appears to have paid off. Room smallish, but big enough for me. It is clean and has a very effective aircon unit. And when I plugged my power cable in the blue light came on - I almost kissed the man showing me the room :)

I cannot get wifi in my room but the connection is fine in the lobby area and there is free coffee on tap. And the connection seems to work outside in the smoking area too. And I have been lent a network cable for using in my room.

So I pottered about for a few hours last night - bought some water, read my email, skyped Paul, read my book and then went to bed at 9 p.m. as I could hardly keep my eyes open.

And slept really well.

And when I woke feeling quite alive again I made myself a coffee and switched the laptop on. Hmm, something not quite right here. I had been squinting at my watch trying to determine if it was 7.50 or 8.50. And then the penny dropped - it was upside down and it was 2.20!

Well, as I was up I decided to wander out for a ciggie before going back to bed. I awoke the night watchman as I walked past. There were 3 Chinese men outside chatting and eating as I sat at another table. Luckily for me as I found I couldn't get back in - they told me to knock on the window to wake him back up to let me in :)

I slept fitfully after that but managed to avoid getting up until jut after 9.

I was just about to head out for breakfast when my phone rang - Albert Hahn did indeed manage to also get a room here and had got in last night. We chatted over breakfast and are planning to meet up this evening to do the guided walk around Chinatown.

I have spent a few hours today exploring Little India. I realised that I had forgotten to pack my fish oil capsules but there were no lack of health stores in the Mustafa centre!

After returning to the hotel for a quick shower I ventured out again to restock my water supply and eventually found a supermarket as I wanted to buy some fruit for the room. So now I have bananas, mangos, dragon fruit and a few things to try along with a packet of digestive biscuits to tide me over...

Countdown to Singapore Continued

2010-11-16T16:03:00.007Z

The onions have been pickled.

The fruit tree bed to be has now been completely covered in cow muck.

The veggie patch is going to have to wait until next year.

The word revision is ongoing. 16000 down, 4000 and one week to go. Seem to be getting through between 1000 and 1500 a day along with the cardbox, but some days are easier than others. A good choice to do the 8s - am quite rusty on the 10-20k range, down at around the 90% mark. But look on the bright side, if I got them all it would have been a waste of my time.

Countdown to Singapore

2010-11-12T11:13:00.003Z

With under two weeks before I leave I am on track with my revision. As long as I don't get distracted with too many other things. The garden is winding up - all potatoes out and just need one more session of muck spreading to get the bed ready for next year's apple trees...

After the mammoth spreadsheet of base words 2-6 I then did the same with the top 10000 sevens. Reduced the list by approximately 50%.

And now I am back to 8s. Hoping to get through the top 20000 before I depart for Singapore. I am over half way there. After whizzing through the top 5000 I am now doing batches of 500 from the starting points of 5001, 10001 and 15001 in rotation just to even the load.

The cardbox is coming back in to play with those I miss.

Mikki Magic

2010-11-02T09:33:00.005Z

Mikki made a promise last year at Causeway.

"If I get to the NSC final I will go dressed as Barbie".

This I think was to make the point on how much money is invested in the doll over scrabble.

Oh what joy that he lived up to his promise. And even better that he won as I don't think there would have been the same impact had he lost.

Despite the media frenzy (at least in the context of scrabble) none that I have seen have made the link...

Have Spreadsheet Will Study

2010-10-27T10:41:00.005+01:00

I have been deep in my latest study whim. Aided lately by two things. Firstly, I have picked up a cold (I am blaming Penny for dropping by last week to pass on her bugs). Secondly, my old mouse started to go senile on me and rather than sending off for an identical replacement I decided to save some money and try a different make/model. My old Logitech model was a thumb operated rollerball, and the new Kensington one has the rollerball in the middle. It is absolutely fine for normal use but I am still not mastering it for Bejewelled Blitz - left clicking with thumb does not come naturally after years of doing it differently and I have noticed I have an occasional thumb twitch...

But back to my studying...

I started creating a spreadsheet on the 19th September which was originally just the high scorers (J,Q,X,Z) listing all the base words, up to and including 6 letters, with each of those letters grouped by their position within the words. Another column alongside each column of words to indicate what kind of word it was. Then red text the blockers. And then pink text the non-blockers, no S back hook. And then blue cell fill the verbs that have agent nouns. Then reviewed the word designation columns and standardised on one or two character abbreviations:

n noun

v verb

a comparable adjective

a- non-comparable adjective

av adverb

pl plural

va verb and comparable adjective

na noun and comparable adjective

pp past tense/participle

v* verb that does not behave

n* noun that does not behave

pr pronoun

i interjective

c conjunction

anything else...

and then standardise the column width and cell colour it to make the words clearer...

And then I decided to do K, but only words starting with K and excluding the high scorers...

And then I continued on to the 4 pointers...

And I just kept going, finally finishing with S yesterday afternoon.

73 pages, although quite a lot of white space as I started a new sheet for each letter and quite a few just went a column or two onto a new page. Just need to print it out now.

I have now started on the 7 letter words in decreasing probability order. It will be interesting to see what the list reduces to...

Five Years

2010-10-13T10:05:00.003+01:00

It is our fifth anniversary of moving up here.
I can hardly believe it.
They say time goes faster the older you get and it must be true.

Thanks to David Bowie: Five Years

Autumn Harvests

2010-10-09T17:44:00.009+01:00

So a week has gone by since I took Paul to the airport.

I would like to say we (the dogs and I) have settled into a routine. But between my bridge exploits and Paul's it hasn't quite worked out yet. Unfortunately for Paul his team has now been knocked out of the Rosenblum Cup in Philadelphia but it was exciting while it lasted, and I may get to bed at a reasonable time from now on.

I have managed a sort of morning routine. Let the dogs out the back (luckily it hasn't been raining), coffee, dog walk and then caterpillar control. I think I have got them almost under control now - only 30ish the last couple of days.

With autumn in full swing I am now sorting out the back garden.

Two more rows of potatoes dug up and a sack filled.

Herb patch weeded. A few self-seeded extras found - a lot of baby thymes, chives and even a cabbage has found its way in there!

Major runner bean picking sessions - 3 pounds given to Margaret and slightly more to Penny. Potentially still quite a lot to come but may be a race against time for them before the weather gets worse.

The purple beans are finally coming to an end - another couple of bags in the freezer. Soon be time to pull them out.

The later sown peas although producing a few pods are not producing peas so their time has also come and gone.

The lettuces that had gone to seed have been pulled out.

Pickling onions dug up this morning and laid out on the chicken wire covering the f-t-b-t-b in an optimistic hope of them drying/ripening. I think I probably should have done this last week...

I have at last had to admit defeat on the tomatoes.

Not only are they not ripening but I noticed a few were rotting and maybe the first signs of blight. So I have now picked all that looked okay - five and three quarter pounds of green tomatoes. I need to get the plants out, hopefully tomorrow in one of the promised sunny spells.

I have put a lot of them on a tray on one of the window sills in the sunroom in the hope that they may ripen indoors. The rest were earmarked for green tomato chutney.

Recipe selected.

Ingredients gathered and weighed.

Onions chopped and set simmering in vinegar.

Tomatoes chopped.

Apples chopped.

Spice bag made - chilies, mustard seeds, cardamom seeds and black peppercorns.

All thrown in with a crushed clove of garlic.

Stirred until sugar dissolved and then brought to a simmer.

And simmered. And stirred. And simmered. And stirred.

About an hour and a half.

I find it very hard to know when chutney is ready - no simple test unlike jam.

Anyway I decided that was long enough and the jars were filled.

And I can always try again with the rest of the tomatoes if they stubbornly stay green...

The A Team

2010-10-07T11:30:00.003+01:00

Not that A Team but Berwick Bridge club A Team pulled off a shock victory against Linlithgow last night.

I cannot envisage Brian and George as all-action heroes but last night they did a stalwart job at the bridge table. Steady performances by the rest of the team gave us the full 3-0 result.

I was playing with Reg at table 4. This was only our second time of playing together other than a couple of practice sessions and a few bidding practice sessions on BBO. This was very brave of Reg, having to learn my system. Not only that but Paul had also amended it over the summer to include transfers, Michael's cue bids and Unusual No Trump so I think we were both a little wary of getting things wrong. As it was little new came up, only one Michael's cue bid from Reg which I remembered to alert.

The next match is in just over a month's time when Jean will be replacing me as Reg's regular partner.

A good start to the season but still a long way to go.

Who's Been Eating My ???

2010-10-03T11:09:00.007+01:00

Another year older. And a few days off from dieting.

A box of chocolates from Paul...

Penny brought round a large lemon sponge cake filled with redcurrants and cream to supplement the chocolate brownies from the day before...

And I had made a large bramble and apple crumble...

When Penny told us that the cake should be eaten by the following day we took the uneaten half with us when we called in on her after running some errands in Duns. It was very nice and although I could have I didn't think I should eat the rest of it on my own :)

I have at last sorted out stuff that needed to be done.

After many wasted days on the internet I finally decided on and booked a hotel in Singapore for a few nights before I up sticks to JB for the Causeway challenge. This was a quite difficult task as hotels seem to be either ridiculously expensive or very cheap and basic. Finding something in the middle that meets requirements (free wifi, larger than a shoe box, decent location) proved a challenge. I hope I have succeeded...

And I sorted out this year's ISA. I have given up hoping for the interest rates to improve but the Halifax/BoS one is an okay rate and I have set in motion transferring all my other crap ones into it.

So back on to the internet to sort out my other finances. I had noticed last week that one of my old fixed rate bonds had expired and without alerting me to the fact was now giving a measly 0.25%. I closed it immediately and now was trying to transfer the money from the bank to another savings account. But, for my security and provided for me as a free service I was repeatedly informed, the extra layer of security basically never even got as far as asking me for my password! After several attempts I resorted to the phone help number provided. I was told the problem was their end - a block was in place. After answering a load of security questions I was able to complete the transaction...

Paul is now in the States for a couple of weeks to play bridge. Actually just over two weeks... Actually nearer two and a half weeks when I looked on the calendar... I am feeling less guilty about my extra day in Singapore now as I will only be away for 12 days...

He was catching a flight at 9.30 on Saturday so alarm was set for 5.30 on Friday night. And as a result I don't think either of us slept a wink. I actually got up at 4 a.m. and tried to nap on the sofa but this was also a complete failure.

When I got back from the airport at about 8.30 I let the dogs out the back and did my veggie patch inspection. Disaster...

Half of my curly kale was reduced to lace. Caterpillars all over it. This couldn't wait - I fetched the plastic cup and started picking them off. A good quarter of an inch in the bottom of it by the time I had finished.

The most common by far was a plain green caterpillar which was extremely well camouflaged, almost exactly the same colour as the plants. Investigation shows there are two varieties of cabbage white butterflies, and this is probably the Small Cabbage White. I also had a smaller number of Large Cabbage White, but these were easier to spot - yellow and black. And a few others - possibly same species at different stages???

Back out at lunch time - I couldn't believe how many I had missed. Another quarter of an inch. And again in the afternoon. By this time I had sussed it out - I uncurled the remaining curly leaves and found caterpillar nurseries. I counted as I picked them off or squashed the smaller ones. Another 200 removed - maybe less than the first couple of sessions as the cup did not look as full.

I checked this morning after the dog walk as I was still in my chic wet weather dog walking outfit - Barbour and woolly hat. I think I may have succeeded in my mission and at least rescued the remaining healthy plants from a similar fate.

It is not just caterpillars that have had a free meal from my veggie patch.

I have had about a pound and a quarter of ripe tomatoes from my two plants but was hopeful of another few. Unfortunately something beat me to them.

A-brambling I Will Go

2010-09-26T12:40:00.005+01:00

I have been keeping an eye on the brambles in the locality. They have been very late ripening this year. Last week it looked as if it would be worth going picking but the weather and other things had got in the way.

One of those other things was digging up all my second early potatoes. The foliage had started to die back all of a sudden, and when I got back from Leeds was looking decidedly brown and withered.

The potatoes did not seem to be affected. I kept filling the carrier bags while Paul was on rubbish bag emptying duty and was in charge of weighing (he brought the bathroom scales downstairs!) and transferring potatoes into the hessian sacks I had bought earlier this year. Seventy three pound dug up (at least as I think they under weigh), making a total of over eighty six pounds...

The King Edward main crop potatoes foliage has also died right back. I may dig up a plant just to check that the potatoes themselves are okay. If any signs of problems I guess I will have to clear them all out too. I should have ordered more sacks...

I also had another afternoon of runner bean processing. Seven pounds picked resulting in another four pounds blanched and in the freezer - those that were too big for the slicing gadget were put aside. Also another pound and a quarter of dwarf purple beans processed. At this rate I think we will be completely self-sufficient in vegetables. The cabbages are now coming in to play...

But this morning I took a window of opportunity when the sun briefly broke through to at last go brambling on the hill the other side of the bridge. I think I have missed the optimum harvest time - like a lot of things this year they are not hanging about and many just squidged in my fingers. However, I did pick just over a pound including wild life and hopefully will get some more later this afternoon from the verge up the hill from Margaret's.

Izzy Wizzy

2010-09-17T15:19:00.004+01:00

It has been a very busy week. And that without any gardening being done...

Last weekend was the NSC semis. The Scottish gang (Allan, Simon, Stu and myself) travelled down to Leeds together. Philips never turned up - nobody knew that he wasn't going...

I started well, winning the first four games and then crashed and burned for the rest of day 1. However, I thought 11 wins should still be enough to get to the final. I was right, but unfortunately it wasn't me but Mark Nyman who swept the board on day 2. We actually played each other in game 9, but the tile gods were definitely smiling on Mark in that game. I ended up 8-6, some damage to my rating but not too much. That is it for the domestic scene for me this year. Next stop JB at the start of December for the Causeway Challenge where I will be playing for the UK team.

The dogs had been put into kennels as Paul was also away that weekend playing bridge in Solihull. I retrieved them on Monday morning much to their delight. I am not sure how much Jen ate whilst away as I had never see her eat her dinner so fast. I then had to retrieve Paul from Berwick station in the afternoon.

On Tuesday evening it was the East District team secretaries meeting to arrange the fixtures for the coming bridge season. I met up with Reg and he drove us on an hour early as there was another meeting he was attending prior to mine. All I can say is that I was not prepared for the chaos. However, all the matches are now in the diary subject to cancellations/rearrangements with only one minor disaster which has now been resolved.

Wednesday and I started working on which of my team members I want to play for which matches. I just needed a couple of confirmations of availability/willingness to play (which I got last night). I now have provisional team line-ups for all the matches, hopefully keeping everyone as happy as possible with the number of 'caps' they will get - both where they want to play almost every match and where they only want to play a couple. Time will tell :)

Wednesday was also the first of the major veggie picking sessions. Given almost a week left to its own purposes with rain and sunshine the veggie patch had gone mad. Luckily I had thought ahead and stocked up on freezer bags and sent away for a blanching basket when Youngman's did not stock such an item.

So, three and a quarter pounds of dwarf purple beans picked. Some donated to Penny and the rest were washed, topped, tailed, chopped, blanched, bagged and put in the freezer.

Reg had given me a bag full of plums, apples and cooking apples on Tuesday evening. So yesterday was baking day. A quick search on the web and I decided on an apple pie (I had a couple of blocks of pastry in the freezer) and a plum cobbler. I had just over two and a half pounds of plums and that seemed perfect for Delia's recipe. I got Paul to help with removing the stones. With the left over pastry from the apple pie I made marmite rolls, which I ate hot from the oven.

In the evening I played bridge with Reg at the club . Our first ever partnership but I will be playing with him in a couple of the league fixtures so we need to get some practice in. No disasters, but none of the system changes that Paul has made for me over the summer (transfers, Michaels, unusual NT) came up. I was pleased to remember that Reg's overcall of 2C over a 1NT opener was for the majors and respond correctly. It must have exhausted me as I slept in this morning until 11.40!!!

This afternoon was the first session of runner bean processing. I had also sent away for a runner bean slicer on the recommendation of both Jean and Penny. I picked four pounds from just one of my wigwams - must have at least as many again ready on wigwam number 2 and still loads more coming. Paul was in charge of the bean slicing and me on the blanching/bagging. Two (prepared) pounds now in the freezer, some put aside for us/Margaret - those that were too fat for the gadget.

Bridge again tonight in the Borders v Edinburgh match. I am playing with Paul...

Blowing In The Wind

2010-09-06T20:20:00.004+01:00

Today was the last day for the foreseeable future when it was not going to rain. Instead we had 30 mph winds. Luckily from the south east so I was somewhat protected from them working on the long bank extension. I was determined to finish the next section up to the top, having come in at around 7 p.m. last night with not much left to go.

After half an hour I was ready to get the last rock in place. I thought I may be able to shift it myself but soon realised I wasn't. I had excavated its hole and went and got Paul to help. Once in place I had a foothold to finish digging out the area above it. An hour later and time to have a celebratory cup of coffee and ciggie. 33.75 hours from start to finish, and I am guessing that was about a third of what I have left to do.

I treated myself for the rest of the afternoon...

The new section now has been christened with three heathers - another nine being planted in other sections of the LBE, six hostas and two gentians. This was not a simple task as the wind kept blowing the pots over while I was digging the planting holes, and then I was having to try to hang on to the pots when I had removed the plants. One pot did escape and was last seen racing towards the bridge.

Another gentian and sedum planted in the bed in front of the wall. Then I tackled splitting the liriope that has been living in a pot since we moved up from Sandhurst. Once I managed to get it out of its pot (having to firstly remove the snail population attached to the rim) a lot of effort was spent jumping up and down on a spade to split it in half. I then split one half into four, three planted and one put aside for Reg. The other half was replanted back into the pot. Then down to the bed at the top of the drive where, again with a lot of effort, I managed to dig out the day lily. This again was split into four, one replanted in its original site and the other three in the new section. Finally I managed to dig out a piece of the euphorbia Jean had given me - a decent bit of root and three good buds on it. On a roll I decided to also split a good clump of alliums into three smaller clumps. My last job was to prune my Kilmarnock willow - although much admired in May by our visitors due to its vigour this was now getting out of hand...

Whilst moving plants from one end of the garden to the other I noticed this Red Admiral butterfly posing on the high bank wall.

The Rise of the Mutant Carrots

2010-08-24T14:31:00.006+01:00

I think I will rethink any future investment in carrot seeds. They are so cheap to buy in the shops I will not make a profit with them. On the other hand it is nice to just go in to the garden and pull a few up - been good for my diet as an alternative to a biscuit when I have felt peckish.

Today's pick gave me these three beauties.

Number one looks more like a molar extraction than a carrot extraction...
Number two is some sort of weird bacterium...
And I leave it up to your imagination for number three...

All the 8s

2010-08-24T11:23:00.005+01:00

Well I did it...

I deleted the whole damned caboodle from the cardbox.

It was a chore, having too much in it and not necessarily words I wanted to revise, and as such I had stopped using it.

And I have started a new one.

You may have thought I had given up studying what with all the gardening. It is true that I am doing nowhere near as much at the moment, but I am still trying to do some every day. I am currently, and have been for a while now, concentrating on 8s. These are definitely my weak area...

I am attacking them from more than one direction.

I should have finished revising the top 10000 by the BMSC this coming weekend, and now I am just adding those I miss into the cardbox. I will keep working my way through over time.

Alongside that I am slowly going through the higher probability 8s. I started at 23k, as that was as far as I had got when I was card boxing. With these I do a quick test, breaking them up into chunks of 250 words. Those I miss or get but wouldn't bet my life on in a game get saved to a file in groups of 1000, e.g. 8missed-23k-24k. I then retest myself on those files several times. After several passes then those missed also get added to the cardbox.

It is actually quite fun doing this - learning some new words as opposed to constant revision. I am currently going through 28001-29000.

LB8 - The Start

2010-08-22T19:26:00.006+01:00

Wanting to plant my new saxifrage Silver Velvet in the LBE bed under the wall meant that I had the motivation I needed to finish that bed off. As it was it only took a couple of hours yesterday as Penny had done most of the leg work for me earlier in the year, removing the stones and forking it over. I really only needed to weed it, dig it over with my hand trowel and then define the edge and line it with some of my many stones. It still needed more topsoil added to it to really finish it off, but not as much as the rest did - for a start we did not find any piles of bricks buried there unlike the part along LB9. It was duly christened with the planting of the saxifrage and the erodium to keep it company.

So on to LB8 proper.

I decided to start at the bottom. First task, as always, was to remove the surface stones. A bucket load and I was ready to start digging out the clay that is solid a couple of inches below the surface at the bottom. I was progressing well but two hours in and the weather changed so I called it a day. Back out this afternoon, with Penny helping for a while. A couple of metres completed and I have now started working my way up, joining up with LB9. A few bucket loads of soil have been relocated to the top, another couple should be enough to finish that off. Paul came out to get the two large rocks in place, the one under the bucket being the monolith we had dug out of the f-t-b-t-b last year and the dark grey one was amongst our freecycle top soil. I am almost ready for another where the trowel is, but I decided to stop when I noticed the midges coming - not sure if I have escaped unharmed but I already have so many bites I don't want to risk more...

It is hard to judge how much I have still to go, but I guess I have done somewhere between 10 and 15%. I have already exceeded my original target for the LBE this year so my new target is to complete up to the top from what I have done today, and maybe the clay removal and cobble stone edging all the way along. I will need to apply more weed killer as I have spotted some more ground elder coming through on the remaining weed patch.

On other gardening matters I reached profit on the veggie patch last week, mainly thanks to the free potatoes and rhubarb. I harvested my first cabbage today - four veggies (cabbage, runner beans, purple dwarf beans and peas) with Sunday lunch today not to mention the first dug King Edward potatoes.

I have now ordered an apple tree collection from Adam's Apples. Ten apple trees to grow as vertical cordons with a mix of cookers, eaters and dual purpose that are suitable for growing here. I specified a couple of varieties that I wanted but am leaving the rest up to the expert. The man was very helpful when I phoned and they are extremely competitively priced. He asked why I was wanting to grow them as vertical cordons and I explained that the bed I am planting has a low wall with a metre of railing on top and I am planning to use the railings as their stakes. He has suggested starting them as vertical cordons and then train them horizontally along the top of the railings. I suppose I could even try planting them as oblique cordons, still using the railings to train them. They start delivering in January, but will wait for me to say when I am ready for them which has taken a worry from me - if we have another winter like this year I could not plant before March. I now have to decide on what other fruit trees I want...

More Plant Retail Therapy

2010-08-17T19:37:00.008+01:00

I had said to Allan that I may go over to watch some of his BEST match against Ed Rossiter today, so Allan had said to come for lunch.

So I made plans to visit Edrom nursery in the afternoon, having spent the evening before going through their website and making a wish list. I had specific requirements. Plants must either provide ground cover (although not be invasive) to fill in gaps in LB 11 and 10, or be capable of filling the little nooks and crannies. Pluses awarded for plants that will be easily propagated, either by division or will layer root. And they had to be in my colour range of white/pink/purple/blue...

As it was I arrived at Allan's about 11.15 a.m. just in time to see the last four moves of the match, Allan winning 8-2. While Allan took Ed to the railway station I spent a pleasant half an hour wandering around his garden, and then we had lunch when Allan got back.

Then off to the real business of the day. I got several of the plants on my list, and a couple of impulse buys, but there were three plants that I had earmarked as really wanting that I could not see. The lady in the payment hut took my list with the three ringed plants over the road to see whether they had them in stock. She came back five minutes later with three pots newly labelled up for me.

So my latest Edrom nursery plants:

Cyananthus microphyllus

Phlox Nettleton variation

Pratia angulata Treadwellii

Rhodohypoxis baurii Confecta (impulse buy, but looks as if I can get several plants from the pot)

Saxifraga Silver Velvet (impulse buy - a large variety with the most amazing purple and silver foliage)

Saxifraga farreri

Saxifraga paniculata Lutea

Scutellaria indica parviflora

Sempervivum Rosie

Sempervivum Triste

Teucrium pyrenaicum

Veronica prostrata Lilac Time

I had also wanted some gentians that I couldn't find but decided I would drop in at Lamberton on my way home as they are one of their specialities. Not only did I succeed with the gentians but also managed to find a few others that met my criteria:

Campanula cochlearifolia 'Alba'

Erodium 'Cezembre'

Gentian Bernardii

Gentian Silken Seas

Gentian septemfida lagodechiana

Saxifraga fortunei 'Rubrifolia'

Sedum spathifolium 'Cape Blanco'

LBE Marches On

2010-08-16T11:09:00.015+01:00

A couple of good afternoon's work have been done in the LBE.

Saturday saw the violas and hibiscuses make it into LB9.

I followed that up with weeding (yet again) the bottom foot or so of LB10, 11 and 12. LB10 has now also been planted up with alternating patches of the black and then pink ajugas, sourced from LB12 where they are now 2 years+old. These themselves were sourced from two plants that I actually bought and planted in LB1 the first summer we moved up here and are still going strong. They are garden thugs but are doing a fine job of edging the LBE, with very few other than the fiercely determined weeds now getting through in LB12. Not bad for an initial outlay of three quid!

I found this growing amongst the weeds in LB10. Not sure what it is but it doesn't look like a weed so I have transplanted and will await its development with interest.

The primroses that I transplanted in the spring seem to like their new environs and are now large enough that I am contemplating dividing them again. One is even flowering! I did divide one of the primulas that I bought from Edrom nursery earlier this year into three healthy looking plants.

I have also been experimenting with the sedum/saxifrage/antennaria that I bought in the spring. When I first got them I pulled of a rosette from each and just popped then into the ground. Similarly with an old house leek that I had brought up in a pot from Sandhurst. They all seem to have taken - indeed the house leek rosette is now a good two inches across.

The sedum now has three rosettes. So spurred on I have pulled off a few more and popped them into the dirt path, hoping they will spread and keep the weeds down. I just have to be careful to avoid stomping on them.

All the parents are doing well and if I am successful will hopefully provide me with a lot more plants - if not they should be big enough for me to divide next spring anyway.

Yesterday I got out there again after lunch - the sun came out after an unpromising morning.

More weeding of the middle section of LB9 and 10, and I then planted the salvia and the penstemons.

One of the penstemons had a stem snapped off as I got it out of the packaging, so I decided to take some cuttings from it. Now I have never done this before so I was not too hopeful. But I could see four reasonable shoots so I cut them off below a leaf joint at a length of somewhere between two and three inches, removed the lower leaves and popped them into a pot filled with a mix of compost and grit. Then I gave them a good watering and they flopped over looking very sad. I placed the pot in my little propagator on the utility room windowsill. This morning when I checked on them they were all looking quite perky. Having looked in one of my gardening books it appears I have done almost text book stem tip cuttings without knowing it - the example they showed was even a penstemon. Hopefully they should root in two to three weeks time, and then I need to pot them on and plant out next spring. This could open a whole new source of plants to me if it works :)

I then moved on to the trellis bed to divide the iris that Anne gave me a couple of years back. Armed with a fork and spade I eventually managed to remove a good sized clump of it which has yielded ten new plants. Back to the LB9 and they are now in. Penny arrived whilst I was replanting them. It still looks pretty bare in places but give it a year or two to see where I do need more planting. The narrow bed along the bottom of the wall, however, is filling in very nicely.

I had been planning on making a start on the bottom of LB8 but it was actually too hot to do anything too strenuous. So after taking the dogs out and having a coffee we relocated to LB1 to finish weeding there - discovery of a wasp nest had scuppered us the last time but a copious dusting of ant/wasp powder at the dead of night a while back seemed to do the trick.

And finally the joys of gardening

coming across this self-sown cyclamen flowering away - parent in pot long since disappeared. It obviously likes it more there than where I have unsuccessfully tried to grow them.

and to think I almost pulled this out in the spring thinking it was dead and it was getting in the way of my weeding

and the discovery of a new shoot on one of the ceanothuses that never made it in to the garden last year, and has looked to all intents and purposes dead since the winter.

Gardening Blues But Red Tomatoes

2010-08-13T13:35:00.008+01:00

It has not been a good gardening summer.

On the whole it has either been too hot and the ground too dry or too cold/windy and/or threatened/half-hearted rain. On the days I have got out there I have been bitten to hell by midges. I am guessing midges as I can't think what else could 'reach the parts other insects cannot reach'...

Given that I spent almost as much time out there in April alone than I have in total since, the garden does appear to be coping extremely well. I am almost keeping on top of the weeds, although it does appear that the long bank extension is my own personal 'painting the Forth rail bridge'. Hopefully, I too will have it under control when fully planted by 2012! I do have a backlog of new plants waiting to be re-homed in there although still a drop in the ocean.

I dropped Paul off at the railway station this morning and then went shopping. I remembered to nip in to Aldi as Paul had mentioned they had hibiscus plants advertised for yesterday's special buys. So I now have a blue/purple one and a white one. Then on to Morrisons where I bought three penstemons and a salvia - I did forget the HP sauce but luckily for Jen and Poncho not the bonios. The violas that I potted on are also ready for planting now, as are the remaining half a dozen hostas. Looking at the forecast for the next few days it doesn't look hopeful although there may be a sunny interval tomorrow lunchtime!

So given the lack of sunshine it is a bit of a surprise that I am getting sun-ripened on-the-vine tomatoes on both my plants that are in the veggie patch. The man I bought them off of at the Paxton plant sale was sceptical when I asked about growing them outside.

New on to the veggie harvesting list are my Red Rum runner beans. Having seen how many are coming I am now doubting the wisdom of having grown so many plants.

On the plus (?) side the Sunbright variety are looking very decorative, having been flowering prolifically for some time now, but so far I have not spotted any actual beans coming.

I had kept up with the purple dwarf beans having found another outlet for some in the form of Reg and Diana, but saw that a load more are now ready...

And I Thank Goodness yet again that we bought another freezer last year.

So far a couple of pounds of goosberries, three pounds of rhubarb (still got plenty more growing away) and a pound of wild raspberries frozen, along with some de-pipped puree. I have actually picked over five pounds so far this year but have made one batch of jam (definitely the best variety) and have been eating the rest with Scotch pancakes and ice cream :)

Happiness is a New Back Lawn

2010-08-05T14:40:00.018+01:00

We got three people to quote for the lawn.

Quote 1) Man was very nice but it did seem very finger-in-the-air estimating the amount of soil we would need, working on the principle that as little as possible was good. We did sort of agree on the area of grass needed, but he didn't measure anything so that was more that he took our estimate as his.
Quote 2) Border Aggregates. Much more impressed. Man measured the area with one of those wheel-on-a-stick measuring things - area about what we had estimated. Agreed that it would be advisable to break the ground up a bit first, and even went as far as discussing levels to determine the amount of topsoil needed and the best approach to laying the turf itself.
Quote 3) Man measured the area with a tape. Came up with a much lower area than us. Didn't seem to think the ground needed any preparation - would be a good hard base. Wrote me a quote on the back of an envelope as he had forgotten his pad. I wasn't sure if this included labour and on trying to get clarification was none the wiser.

Quote from Border Aggregates arrived in the post a few days later. I was pleasantly surprised. Quote from man 1 arrived a few days later. It was less but was also for a much lower quantity of topsoil. If we upped that to match Border Aggregates the quotes were about the same. So, Border Aggregates won the business hands down.

So on Tuesday we got a phone call to say they would be coming in the afternoon. This was really to drop off the mini digger and just ascertain exactly what was to be done (different two men from the one who had originally come to do the estimate). They would be back first thing the following day to start work. We ascertained that allowing for the drive in from Kelso this would be 7.30 a.m.

Now it needs to be watered every day for the next 3 to 4 weeks, and given a feed after a couple of weeks. Minimal walking on for a month so the dogs are going to have to wait before testing it out as a race track...

The War of the Cabbages

2010-07-30T14:04:00.009+01:00

There are battles being fought in the veggie garden...

I had never noticed that many cabbage white butterflies in the past...

But now that I am growing cabbages they seem to have made a beeline to my back garden.

I have started an egg and caterpillar removal patrol every couple of days. I am learning the tricks of the caterpillars. They curl up and drop to the ground when I try to squidge them. So now I have a cup waiting to catch them. This is today's crop. Whilst I am doing this the butterflies are continuing to flutter around on the other side of the cabbage patch.

However, I have had some unintentional revenge. The cabbages in RP2 have a double layer of netting as I had originally cut a length to cover the whole of the planter but now the onions are getting quite tall I have just folded it back over the cabbages. Several butterflies have been tempted by the large healthy plants and have made their way under the first layer only to find themselves trapped.

I transplanted my leeks yesterday. I have got three good rows and two wimpy rows but I decided that I wasn't going to faff about - it was all or none. Inspection this morning showed evidence of dog (my money is on Jen) stomping over some of them. I pulled up and replanted about half a dozen.

I also got around to a better attempt at staking up my two tomato plants. I spotted in my fruit and veggie bible that they were vine tomatoes which are normally grown up a single tall support and sideshoots removed. Too late for that, but I could tidy them up from their sprawling on the ground. They are still fruiting well and there are loads more flowers on them.

I picked my first good-sized carrot (Amsterdam Forcing) on Tuesday, followed the next day by one of the other variety, Supreme Chantenay.

The peas are now also being cropped and I can hardly keep up with the dwarf beans now. And don't even mention lettuces although I have found an outlet for some of them in the shapes of Penny and Margaret.

I have found a use for some bright raspberry pink wool. I have been tagging runner beans, dwarf beans and pea pods to keep for next year's seeds. Adds a bit of colour.

I haven't completely neglected the rest of the garden. Penny came over last week and helped me to weed the LBE. I then sprayed several outbreaks of bindweed. I have since planted over a dozen hostas, a rhododenron and nine surviving carnations from J parkers, and two platycodons and rhodohypoxises that I thought were reasonably priced in Morrisons. It still looks very empty in places. I have my eye on several plants in other parts of the garden that can be divided in the autumn...

I am also back to planning the fruit tree bed to be. I think I have found a very good site to source my apple trees. And will probably get my pear and plum trees from J Parkers. Still undecided on cherry trees...

Sugar and Spice...

2010-07-22T19:38:00.007+01:00

A trip into Berwick yesterday to buy the basics for my new adventure into pickles and chutneys.

Brown and white pickling vinegar. Four bottles of balsamic vinegar. Light and dark brown sugar. Onions, ginger, chillies, coriander and mustard seeds.

On my way back to the car I spotted Youngman's had a display of Le Parfait preserving jars in their window display. Dumped the shopping and went back - two 1 litre and two half litre jars purchased along with a couple of jam cover sets.

A trip into Duns this morning to get some muslin from Penny. Then into the deli - what a cornucopia of spices. The last two on my list where mace (not ground) and allspice berries - no problem. It then occurred to me that Youngman's may also sell muslin (hadn't thought of it yesterday) so I went in and asked. Yep... So back to Penny's to return hers.

Right. I had everything I needed... Just needed to get the kitchen in order first...

Jars washed, rinsed and into the oven to sterilize.

Ingredients weighed. Onions chopped.

Spices selected and tied into a small muslin parcel.

Gently simmer the onions in half the vinegar for 10 minutes.

Then throw everything else in.

Stir continuously until the sugar has all dissolved.

Turn the heat up to a steady simmer, stirring occasionally.

Start worrying as it takes forever to thicken up...

Turn the oven off as I won't need the jars for a long time yet.

Hmm. What exactly does the consistency of a thick jam mean?

I think it's getting there - the gooseberries have broken down.

Turn the oven back on.

Is this the right consistency?

I have to decide at some point that it is ready and this is it.

Remove muslin parcel and bottle up...

The recipe said it should make nearly 4 lbs if using apples. I think I have got about 3. My other recipe book expects yields to be much lower than the weight of the ingredients so I am not worrying yet. Probably depends on the water content of the fruits used.

Am now supposed to leave it for at least a month to mature...

It'll Be Chickens Next

2010-07-21T11:08:00.013+01:00

Paul had wanted me to throw out my mum's old jam pan. Okay, it has sat in the cupboard unused for years but I really didn't want to throw it out. And now I have found it a perfect use...

I did a 'double' batch - 6 pints of water. And I was right - this produced about one gallon of elderflower cordial. I really hope the campden tablets work. It has had the thumbs up from Anne. I still need Penny to try it - I have tried hers which is a lot sweeter than mine.

My diet survived the visit of Gerry, Jane, Charlotte and Charlie intact. I have now lost half a stone - over half my target with 5 weeks to go.

The veggies are continuing to grow and I picked my first Purple teepee dwarf beans yesterday - about 40 pence worth I reckon. Went very nicely with some more of my 'free' rogue potatoes and a salmon fillet. I have been given a scientific explanation of why they turn green when they are cooked...

I have now dug out all of the rogue potatoes from the tomato bed in the veggie patch - but more plants still keep popping up in various places. Have now harvested over 12 lbs and haven't started on the ones I actually planted...

I thought I may have had the odd carrot ready for pulling. But unfortunately the size of the carrot didn't live up to its promise or my expectations. About an inch and a half of tasty goodness.

Similarly with the pea pod I popped a few days ago. They are getting there but not quite yet...

I did pick a pound and a half of the rhubarb and make a large crumble last week for our visitors. It all went in the one sitting.

26 radishes picked so far, including a few whoppers. It seems to be the case that two or three are ready every few days.

Yesterday I picked the gooseberries. Not a good year compared with the last couple - only 5.75 lbs and way down on quality. They had been badly hit with mildew and took forever to clean, top and tail. Next year they are going to be sprayed! I am thinking of trying to make gooseberry chutney with some of them. Quite inspired with my new books...

Now that we are well into summer the weather has decided it doesn't like it. Absolutely peeing down again. I know we wanted rain a few weeks back but I am getting bored of this now. My seed sowing regime has broken down. The curly kale needs transplanting.

The violas I ordered arrived last week - and there I was getting drenched as I potted them up. The long bank extension really needs weeding and the potted-on hostas are waiting to get planted in there. And all the time the rabbits are trying to make burrows and undoing a lot of what I do get done.

On a positive note I have almost convinced myself that some of my leeks may be large enough to transplant by the time we get a day of good weather...

This and That

2010-07-10T07:56:00.017+01:00

It was the UK Masters last week. The toughest event in the domestic scrabble calendar - the top 16 players in the UK are invited and then down the ratings list for the reserves. So no easy games unlike in Swiss paired events where if you lose a couple of games you are likely to get a much lower rated opponent.

In the past it has been a straight round robin, but this year it was decided to add on another three games after the round robin stage. Which was a real bummer for me - for the first time in many years of trying I was leading after the first 15 games. The title would have been mine for the first time, after coming so close so many times before. I won the first of the extra games against Paul Allan so Lewis Mackay and I were two clear of the field with two to go. My spread was well ahead of Lewis so essentially I just needed to win one of our two matches. But the tile gods decided to abandon me. or to be more accurate smile on Lewis. So I lost the first match by a heart wrenching two points. Don't panic - I could still do it. But our opening racks set the tone for the decider - I had AEEIRRU, and Lewis was blessed with two Ss and a blank. His responding bonus to my opening dump of URAEI blocked my GROOMED bonus and so the game went, in the end me losing by thirty something.

Things are going better in the veggie garden...

Jean called in on Paul while I was away and told him the potatoes looked ready to her. So I have started harvesting them now, beginning with the rogue ones in the veggie patch from last years missed potatoes, potato 'pips' and spade-sliced-off sections of potato. I had been removing most of them when they appeared in the wrong places but left two patches to their own devices. So I have now cleared the area around the runner beans and have started to dig up the ones by the tomatoes. Jen has decided that the ones in the fruit-tree-bed-to-be need excavating too - luckily also the spare ones that I transplanted into the last gap. She knows she shouldn't go in there but makes a bee-line for it almost every time I let her out the back. I did a Basil Fawlty on her yesterday with the broken off potato plant which just ended up with her covered in dirt and giving me an equally dirty look.

Jen is actually my biggest garden pest. She seems to think my raised planters are her vantage points. The middle one is safe, with the hoops and butterfly netting but RP1 has paw prints in it - luckily the seeds seem to have taken it in their stride - npi. RP3 is the latest victim - we let Poncho and Jen out the back on returning from food shopping and I watched her run and jump straight in it. Luckily it is only half planted and just a few carrots squished before I dragged her out.

So on to the veggies.

Life In The Raised Planters:

RP1:
My first sown surviving carrots appear to be maturing - how do you know when they are ready?
The lettuces are overtaking us now. I have picked a few of the small romaine ones to let the others (another dozen) reach a good size and the salad bowl ones are growing faster than we can eat them. And I have another sowing of the romaine variety on the way in here.
More spinach and rocket coming up too - one of my severed spinach plants re-sprouted. And another row of radishes...

RP2:
The cabbages I left in there are pushing up the butterfly netting. Another half dozen need transplanting.
A second sowing of kale is doing well but will need to be moved as they are being swamped by the cabbages. Not sure whether to just move them into the veggie patch as they are still very small.
And another row of radishes...

My pickling onions seem to be thickening, as are the bulb onions.
I am still concerned about the leeks...

RP3:
Yet more lettuces. Lucy has suggested making lettuce soup which I had no idea existed - I will definitely give it a go.
I have been harvesting a few radishes every couple of days - almost finished the first sowing. I had a go with the radish-top pesto after a trial run with the last of the first sown rocket. It was okay but I think I over-seasoned and garlicked it - the rocket was better. And I have another row of radishes coming...
More carrots - Jen permitting, kale and spinach - although only three plants germinated.
And the red onions that I just bunged in are now about to flower...

Life In The Veggie Patch:

Just over 6 lbs of 'free' potatoes so far, although some of these are the Jen ones.
The first of my peas have flowered and pods are appearing.

My runner beans are flowering, and the first wigwam has been covered. The second wigwam is well under way with one plant ignoring it and making a dash for freedom. The first obelisk is also very colourful, although they have only climbed about half way so far.
The dwarf beans are flowering away merrily. Another batch have been planted free-standing as the first ones don't appear to want to climb the netting.

I have transplanted the three surviving first sown kale plants and they seem to be appreciating it.
The cabbages are thriving. The first transplanted cabbages that survived the slugs and snails are now bulking up. Another dozen winter cabbages are now in the veggie patch.
I have now counted 11 baby tomatoes.
I am also tempted to pick some of the rhubarb - all three crowns look exceptionally healthy an it seems a shame not to have any home-grown rhubarb this year.

On the fruit front I have already picked as much weight-wise as I have potatoes! This is one of four main patches. And they will keep coming for the next couple of months. One batch of jam already made.

I have decided to branch out and make some elderflower cordial, in competition with Jean and Penny. So I went on the web to find recipes. You are spoilt for choice, but I was left a little bewildered trying to work out how much by volume the recipes actually produce. So if you use 3 pints of water and then add three pounds of sugar how come you still only get 3 pints. So I asked Penny - and she says it makes more as I expected. And on further questioning I discovered hers sound more like syrup with the amount of sugar she uses. Anyway I thought I would try this recipe. So I then scoured the web looking for citric acid, campden tablets and a suitable container and found all that I needed here. My package arrived this morning.

And then I branched out again as whilst looking I had come across the Collins Gem Food For Free book and that sounded rather enticing. So on to Amazon and I ordered a copy. And a couple of books on jams, chutneys and preserves. Awaiting my next package with eager anticipation.

Back to more mundane things and I have made a start on cleaning and tidying the house. Gerry and family are coming next week for a few days. So the sunroom is now looking a lot better with the dead flies hoovered up from the window sills.

And finally I have disproved the old adage Red Sky At Night as it peed down starting in the early hours and continuing on until late morning...

Flying Insect Fireworks

2010-06-30T10:00:00.004+01:00

I have started a late night slug and snail patrol of my raised planters.

Two nights ago I had a surprise when I found a toad in one of them, obviously with the same idea. Unfortunately it was a small toad that had come across a very large slug. I departed to inspect the veggie patch proper. When I returned to check on the toad it had disappeared and large slug was heading towards my carrots...

Last night no toad but I did remove and squish about half a dozen more slugs.

I then had to brave a swarm of flying insects that had been attracted by the outside light. However, they are forgiven by providing me with my very own fireworks display. Yellow/orange glows of great intensity as they got close to the light, and then streaks getting slowly dimmer as they fell away. Others twirling like catherine wheels. My camera cannot capture the magic but the mere fact that I haven't ended up with a photograph of black sky gives you an idea of quite how bright they were...

Healthy Eating?

2010-06-28T13:44:00.004+01:00

So into week three of the latest diet, eating a lot of fruit and salads. Had a bit of a setback when we went out for a very nice meal just over a week ago to celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary, but so far I have lost 4 lbs. Still on target for decimation before the BMSC.

But am I hitting the 5-a-day target?

Well, that's the question.

I decided to try to find out exactly what is 5-a-day. This is the nhs site on the matter.

I am a little disappointed to find out that my home-made smoothies that I have had for lunch the last couple of days actually only count as a maximum of 2 portions, even though they contain 1 portion of orange juice, one banana and at least one portion of my freshly picked alpine strawberries. Hmm. So if I ate the strawberries, then the banana and washed it down with the orange juice it would be 3 portions. Crazy.

No matter though. I have been having at least one portion of my home grown lettuce and at least 2 portions of other fruit each day.

I am disappointed but not totally surprised that potatoes don't count - not that I have been eating them lately, but I will be starting to harvest them in another couple of weeks.

Yesterday I picked the first of my radishes - they have a nice kick. The tops have been washed and are in the fridge - I should have enough with the next batch to try the pesto. I had a practice run with the last of my first-sown rocket a couple of days back. Paul has just finished it off with pasta for his lunch.

As I previously intimated pretty much anything goes for pesto - the golden rule appearing to be the magic ratio of 2:1:1 for leaves, cheese and nuts. Not sure how healthy it is calorie-wise though - cheese, nuts and being drowned in virgin olive oil - but it tasted pretty damned good.

Back On The Study Wagon

2010-06-27T20:39:00.003+01:00

I had taken a sort of break with my word studying. The garden was/is taking up a lot of my time and to be honest I had lost my enthusiasm for it. However, as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

So about three weeks ago I decided to put in a concerted effort on the lower probability 7s and actually go through them all starting at 20001, which I certainly haven't done for a very long time - probably pre Sowpods. And today I got to the end. Hurrah. I'm not saying that I know them all, but I know a lot more now than I did... And now I have gone back to the start - just whizzed through the top 1000. Hopefully will get some time in on the high-prob 8s before the masters next weekend too.

I'm also revising the fours. Trying Joel Wapnick's technique of trying to fix every tenth word and then fill in the gaps. Works when I can actually remember the key words - I have found I don't even need to remember all the key words as long as I can remember enough of them to know whether I am on track or not. Only problem will be when we change dictionary again...

I haven't touched my cardbox. Am thinking of scrapping it and starting again, only adding in words I miss or are of the type that leap out as the only possible answer but are not in my normal/high-probability scrabble vocabulary. I still think revising the high-probability words more frequently is more beneficial.

Radishes

2010-06-26T13:03:00.003+01:00

The morning veggie inspection showed that some of my first sown radishes are ready for picking.

I seemed to recall that the leaves are also edible, so on to the web to check out options.

I was stunned by the number of hits I got for radish tops. The most interesting of these was for pesto. It seems that the world is your oyster as far as ingredients for pesto is concerned.

Penny brought us back parmesan cheese from her last trip to Italy. I had bought Paul some pistachios at Christmas that have remained unopened. We have garlic and good quality olive oil.

So I am going to give this recipe a try, give or take...

First Harvest of the Year

2010-06-23T18:31:00.014+01:00

It was spinach picking day today - flower buds had appeared over the last few days with the warmer temperatures. I had been taking a few leaves most days for the last couple of weeks, along with the rocket which has now bolted. Fresh sowings of both were made last week. So I have pulled one row out completely and have experimented as per my RHS veggie-book-bible, and cut the other row back to about an inch above the ground to see if they re-sprout. I may have left it too late. I made a spinach, onion and cheese omelette for tea tonight, a few leaves are in the fridge and should keep for a couple of days and the rest (about 250 grammes) have been put in the freezer.

My dwarf beans are indeed dwarf having hardly made it up to the netting I have provided them. However, on inspection this morning there appear to be flower buds so hopefully beans will follow. I seem to be a voyeur of insects mating lately - not sure what these are (zoom in on photo) but they did not seem at all concerned with the intrusion of my camera.

The two tomato plants I bought at Paxton now have some tiny tomatoes on them and more flowers. I need to stake them up now. I don't know whether they will ripen outside - may be another use for the sunroom window sills. In the same family the potatoes are also starting to flower.

My peas seem to have survived the trauma of their transplantation. I am now sowing more in situ at about 10 day intervals. The first batch are growing nicely and I can see signs of the next lot breaking through.

The runner beans are varying in how well they are doing. The first Red Rum ones are climbing up their wigwam nicely, but the next lot don't seem to have quite got the hang of it yet. One is trying, but has stretched across to the next plant's pole. The Sunbright ones were a little slower to get going, but now seem to realise what the obelisks are for and have put a spurt on.

I am extremely pleased with my lettuces. I have been picking occasional leaves from the salad bowl variety, and the Romaine ones are looking very healthy. They should be ready for picking in another week or so.

I am having mixed luck with my cabbages. Currently a 60% survival rate with the ones I transplanted to the veggie patch. Hopefully they are now large enough to survive the occasional slug or snail grazing on them.

However, the ones I kept in the raised planters are looking a lot better. The second sowing of both summer and winter cabbages that I made a month ago have almost all germinated and now have at least one pair of true leaves. I had almost given up on the first sowing of curly kale but three plants have started putting on real growth now.

The third raised planter is also getting in on the act, being used for second sowings of lettuces, spinach, carrots and kale. The radishes and replanted onions are also in here.

Not everything in the garden is rosy though.

The Amsterdam forcing carrots in raised planter one are down to maybe one or two plants if I am lucky. The Supreme Chantenay carrots are faring better and hopefully I will get a reasonable crop - the tops are now a reasonable size. I think my idea of replanting the thinned plants was not worth the effort though. I am not sure what the problem is - I am guessing a combination of slugs/snails/voles and Jen. Paul has put mousetraps in planter two as vole holes and little tunnel/mounds of soil have appeared in the last week or so.

My onions and leeks are also not progressing as well as I would like. I guess there is still time for these to thicken up.

Another Early Morning

2010-06-23T07:55:00.003+01:00

I awoke and looked at the clock. It was flashing - we had had a power cut. It said 2.55 but I was informed by Paul that it was actually 5.30. Did I want to get up at this time again? No.

So I tried to get back to sleep. Paul resumed trying to snore...

I must have dozed for a bit but was rudely full awakened by our telephone blipping and telling us calls would be answered after 6 rings over and over again. It varied how far through the message it got - calls, calls, c c c calls would be...

Calculating the time as about 6.45 and needing the loo I decided to get up. Paul unplugged the phone, plugged in our old one and then went back to bed.

Coffee made, laptop on and I then discovered that we had no internet connection. My whole first thing in the morning routine was up the creek. Normally I get my email in, check out any new blog postings that I link to, check the weather forecast (both BBC and metcheck and decide which one I like best) and finally catch up on facebook.

I tried the old switch it off and on again trick, but it didn't work. However, I could hear Paul getting up now so he may know what to do.

He also tried the old switch it off and on again trick, but it didn't work. It wasn't behaving as he would have expected. He trotted off and returned with our old magic box but couldn't find the cable. I suggested it may be in the drawer full of cables of all colours and sizes under the TV. He was just in the process of emptying it all out when Hey! Presto! my internet connection came to life.

Switching the phone back on and it too was miraculously cured.

We guess we were working on a budget power supply.

Time for a second cup of coffee...

A Tale of Two Doggies

2010-06-20T07:12:00.004+01:00

I woke up early this morning and decided to just get up as I had been tossing and turning, Paul had been snoring, and it was a glorious morning.

"It's only half past five".

"Yep".

I made myself a cup of coffee, let the dogs out the back, opened the gate so that they could get through to the patio where I had placed a couple of chairs to deter them running through on to the front lawn. I was sitting quietly sipping my coffee and enjoying watching and listening to the birds. A lovely peaceful start to the day.

And then out of nowhere appear two very wet and weed-covered black dogs, one large (labrador) and one small (not sure), from the lawn on to the patio. Luckily I reacted faster than Poncho who had just wandered through the gate. I grabbed him by the collar and shoved him in to the sunroom before he realised what was happening. I then locked the side gate before Jen came running through from the back garden.

Now I had Poncho going ape-shit in the sunroom, barking and standing on his hind legs, front paws on the window. Jen barking and jumping on my potato plants in the back garden. And two black dogs looking at me questioningly with wagging tails.

I tried to get them to exit stage right. They followed me to the lawn but no further. And then they just ran down my bank and away. Investigation of the wet doggy paw prints indicate that they headed to the gate opposite Margaret's.

The New Lawn Saga - Part 1

2010-06-17T09:58:00.004+01:00

This is a precis.

Now that my planters, veggie patch and fruit tree bed to be are up and running I had told Paul that I really wanted the lawn to be done this year.

"What do I need to do?"

"Ask Karen*. But for a start you need to get rid of the weeds".

So Paul's first task involved getting me to make up the weed killer and then getting Penny to apply it...

Time goes by...

"Now what?"

"Ask Karen. But you need to remove all the rubbish and large/loose stones".

So an hour or two of clearing up.

"Can you order some topsoil for Wednesday?".

"You order it. We are not ready for topsoil. There are still loads of stones to clear".

Yesterday there was no sign of activity so I came inside to find him.

"I thought I had finished. I wasn't worried about the small ones..."

"We are going to be spending a lot of money on topsoil and turf. I don't want to then find that it all dies and we have to start again. I will help you".

So after lunch we both went out. It was hot and after an hour or so Paul was obviously losing all interest.

"Do we really need to get all these stones out? They are going to be under about four inches of topsoil".

"Ask Karen".

We had seen her drive past a little earlier so hopefully she was in. So off he went. She was waiting for her builder to come so said she would pop along later.

And so she did.

So her judgement is that we will need to hire a rotovator and remove all the big stones. I felt a lot happier, Paul didn't.

So this morning Paul has been on the phone and we have three people coming to quote for doing it all for us...

* Karen is a neighbour who laid a new lawn last year. She also gave up her job a couple of years ago to retrain in horticulture.

Twitching at Todheugh

2010-06-15T12:22:00.009+01:00

Springwatch is in overdrive at Todheugh.

Yesterday I took my binocs with me when we walked the dogs down the path by the river. While I was watching the oystercatchers I saw a kingfisher - a flash of iridescent blue speeding along the river. Now you see it, now you don't.

I needed to pop into Duns today to put a cheque into the bank.

As I stepped out of the door I saw this little cutie pie. I am guessing a song thrush chick. Frozen to the spot - if I don't move she can't see me...

Back in to get camera and warn Paul. Don't let the dogs out. Jen has a history of swallowing chicks in a single mouthful if we don't see them before she does...

Then I spotted a second one on the corner of the lawn at the start of the high bank. Same reaction - don't move...

A little further on, huddling at the bottom of the wall amongst stray wild strawberry plants, I found a third chick.

Luckily they have all moved on now...

New Residents

2010-06-13T10:34:00.009+01:00

I have heard and seen them flying overhead in the evenings for the last couple of months.

They came, they saw, they moved in...

NSC Scotland Heat 2010

2010-06-06T14:25:00.015+01:00

So as you may have gathered I have not been doing my 5 hours a day studying recently...

As it is
1) now raining quite heavily so I am stuck indoors
2) I have done my anally retentive gardening for today in the drizzle of rearranging all the orange/yellow/red violas to one bed and the white/mauve/purple ones to the other now that they are flowering
3) it was only seven games and
4) I won
I decided I would blog the tourney. I had said that 7 games was a lottery but now, of course, it was all down to skill...and I got more than my fair share of blanks...

Allan had arranged to get here some time between 7.30 and 7.45 yesterday morning. And actually arrived just as the pips went for 8.00 on his car radio. I was waiting at the bottom of the drive. We arrived with 20+ minutes to spare.

Game 1: Margaret Harkness W: 376-524
A slow start for me, replying with OVUM on my first move and was hit with TAJ. I was forced to change so was about 80 behind after Margaret's third move, but had picked a blank and the Z. (W)IZ for 35 and a nicely balanced rack. EX from Margaret for 30 and I bonused with HaPLITE to level the scores. From AAEQRRU I opted for the turnover with QUARER rather than QUA(I)R for a few less point and was now hit with SAINTLY for 90. But I had picked the second blank, and WARDmOT(E) gave me back a small lead, immediately extended with (N)ANDINAS from the bag. We traded 33 point triples with C(A)VED and H(Y)LE. We both balananced on the next move, BI(Z) from Margaret and U(D)O from me. I was rewarded with (D)ONARIES to make the game safe. A neat two move playout of INFO and BYE increased my spread.

Game 2: Kate Surtees W: 355-366
A game I struggled with from start to finish. Kate opened with BAUK and with a clunky consonant rack I replied with V(A)W. Kate exchanged three tiles and I decided to try to avoid the totally blocky board type of game so played LIC(K)ED. TRAYNES hooking it from Kate, but it was playable anyway so I didn't feel so bad. My pickup could have been better, still consonant heavy so J(A)NN from me. My rack was not developing well, and DETEsTS from Kate on move 6 saw me 109 points behind. I started chipping away at her lead, and my bonus of FIgMENT on move 9 got me back within 20. After 12 moves each our scores were level. Coming onto the last rack, 23 behind, I held AEILOWZ to Kate's DEIOOPR. I spent a couple of minutes trying to find a two move playout that scored enough and couldn't see one. Finally I opted for OW and hoped for a miracle and got one. I may spend a little time examining this end game to see if there is a sure win without time pressure. My clock stopped dead on 0.

Game 3: Ray Tate W:477-417
I opened with ANALoGY. Ray got back-to-back bonuses on moves 3 and 4 with a face value LOUSI(E)ST and MODIsTE to take a small lead, but I responded with DEARIES on move 6, AX for 37 and then (L)IBELANT on move 8 to go over 100 clear. ZO from Ray for 64 got him back within a bonus but I started blocking the floaters and was not going to let that lead slip.

A break for lunch. I think I was in second place, with three players unbeaten.

Game 4: Philips Owolabi W: 495-418
Two Ss and one vowel on my opening rack, so WARMS seemed like a good option. Philips just dumped (R)EW. I had hoped for a Helen-friendly L but dumped JOUR(S), keeping ANS. (W)AIVE from Philips and I opened my bonus account with DANNIES. He replied in kind with FARSING. With AELNORY I opted for (F)OY, unfortunately not blocking Philips' ZOEAE for 72. Another nothing rack for me of AAELNRT and no friendly floaters so I dumped LA, hoping for one of the many unseen Is. Philips balanced a consonant heavy rack, and with my pick of the X and another consonant I played AX for 52 to almost level the scores. Philips continued scoring well, but I hat-tricked on moves 8, 9 and 10 with aPOLUNE, dIVISIO(N) and, perhaps greedily as I think POUT(Y) was actually a much better play, OUT(C)APER. Luckily for me Philips' last rack of ENTICED did not play...

Game 5: Simon Gillam W: 308-412
Simon started, and for the second game I responded with VAW, although this time I also played the A. DELTA from Simon and ABLY from me, a worrying play leaving 3 consonants. Simon dumped QI, but I had picked well to take the triple with (Q)UAT. I picked the first blank, but with an awkward consonant combination of B, F and P I just dumped F(A)B for 8 on my next play. I now had SYNAPT?. Given the options of TYmPANS, SYNAPT(E)s which I wasn't 100% sure took the S I actally opted for PANTY for 42, keeping back S?. It worked out well when I bonused the next move with EVO(C)aTES to go 100 ahead. I went for turnover on my next play, WOODI(N)G for 30, keeping an E. My next play was a no-brainer from a rack of EEIIUUU, and I picked the second blank. Again I turned down a bonus that I wouldn't bet my life on as KEN kept be 95 up with a good core rack leave. I wasted a lot of time on the next move, trying to find a bonus starting with a C or T, before giving up and playing E(C)HiDNAS. With rubbish left in the bag I knew the game was now safe.

Game 6: Allan Simmons: W 335-412
I was replying for the fourth time, but it worked in my favour with the 4x sUG(A)RING for 86. A comment from Allan re me having a blank... I maintained a 70-80 lead over the next half a dozen moves, extending it to over 100 when Allan exchanged all 7 tiles on move 7. I hit him again on move 9 with SCARLET, opting for a lower score but more controllable board position. I now just set about closing the bonus spots, not worrying too much about non-bonus dangers. Allan made an opening with NO(G), leaving one in the bag. I would still win even if he had a bonus, but with AEIINWY? unseen I saw the possibility of ANYWIsE so blocked with P(IsO). And was proved correct when I picked an I...

I was now the only unbeaten player and my spread was such that barring a disaster I would win the heat.

Game 7: Julie 'The Giant Killer' Tate: W:402-321
A vowel-heavy opening rack and I dumped PIU. XU from Julie for 34. Still vowel heavy, I risked COURIE. pIErAGE from Julie for 60. Hmm. I had picked an S, so JIVES for 54 and staying in touch. I was pegging the lead back with some steady but not outstanding scoring, and overhauled Julie on move 6 with (I)NFIRM for 45. We were then swapping the lead move on move, heading towards the end game. I had a tough decision with AAAILNS. There was still an unseen S and the Z to come. Julie had just played (O)TTER. After a lot of thought I opted for NAIL and promptly picked both the S and Z, and raced across the line. The score really does not reflect the closeness of this game, the only one where I was never even close to getting a bonus.

So, 7-0. And possibly the first time I have completed a blog report before John G. has got the ratings published :)

Weeding Between The Lines

2010-06-04T15:28:00.003+01:00

The air is alive with dandelion seeds...

The rain followed by several days of heat and sunshine means that weeds are thriving, growing almost as quickly as my peas did.

Time to sort out the raised planters again. Wasn't too much of a problem in the first two but in the third I had to try to distinguish my rows of seedlings amongst the chaos of the weeds. Hopefully all in order again now. Butterfly netting now over the middle planter which has more cabbages in it.

I planted out my gutter-sown peas last night. I think I was a little over ambitious in my length of guttering - they were not as easy to slide out as my fruit and veggie book implied. Slightly easier after I gave them a good soaking and they do all appear to be standing, albeit slightly more squashed together.

I noticed that the number of cabbages planted in the veggie patch is going down. A couple of little stumps and fat slugs/snails somewhere :(

A couple more rogue potato plants dug out. Some more peas sown directly into the ground along with a few more dwarf beans. Another row of radishes as the old seed that I tested seems to still be viable. I noticed one of my red onions from last year that was too small to eat had started to sprout so I have planted it too.

A slight panic last night when I thought I had lost one of the plants from Lamberton nursery. I couldn't remember buying let alone planting a diascia. So this morning I went out and counted the plants I had planted. Hmm... seventeen. All present and correct and not a diascia in sight. It was another dianthus not a diascia as misreported in the earlier post (now corrected).

LB9 Open For Business

2010-06-03T20:15:00.005+01:00

A full day spent digging out stones/weeds and about 10 barrow loads of soil relocated to the bed by Margaret's wall. Three rocks dug in at the top and some more pieces of slate pushed in to keep the soil in place. LB8, here I come...once the weed killer kicks in...

Plants, Plants and Yet More Plants

2010-06-02T11:03:00.004+01:00

We went to Hugo's for lunch yesterday and when we got home I found my first delivery of plants from J Parker had arrived. MIL and FIL went in to Berwick to try to get a chip on their windscreen repaired while I set about planting and potting on.

The Bowl of Beauty paeony (well actually a lot of roots and a couple of buds) and the bearded irises have been put straight into the garden. I may replant the irises as I was rushing to get them in...

Next I potted on the hostas. I had ordered two packs of a random selection of 6 varieties. Obviously there had been a problem with the quality control of the packing as I actually had 7 in one pack and a whopping 13 in the other. Should be almost enough for the whole of the remainder of the LBE if they all survive the trauma.

Then I planted a rather sad looking stick with a few leaves into one of my nice pots - magnolia soulangeana. I am hoping to eventually get it into the long bank to replace one of the brooms when they finally need to come out. I thought they may be in their last year now but the hard winter seems to have suited them well and they look healthier than they did last year!

My free gift rhodondendron was pot grown so will make it in to the garden in the next few days and the free gift Devon dianthuses have also been potted on.

Finally the lily of the valley - I had planned for them to be behind the sheds but that area needs to be weeded first so I put 5 behind the gooseberry bushes and the remainder are temporarily planted in a pot.

Today the sun is out, the start of a promised spell of good weather but I will 'wasting' Saturday in Perth again for the Scottish heat of the National Scrabble Championship.

MIL and FIL departed this morning.

Paul is out clearing the back in preparation to spraying the weeds yet again.

I am hoping to start planting 'my' nursery purchases (many thanks to Lilian who insisted on buying them for me when we went to pay) today but there still appears to be more traffic than normal so I will have to be careful.

Edrom nursery:

Globularia Nudicaule

Saxifrage fortunei Rubrifolia

Saxifrage 'Blackberry and Apple Pie'

Iris Setosa dwarf form

Dodecatheon dentatum

Phlox sublata Marjorie

Penstemon newberryi Amethyst

Dianthus Inshriach Dazzler

Dianthus Whatfield Wisp

Phyteuma scheuzeri

Lamberton nursery:

Globularia velutina

Geranium subcaulescens Splendens

Geranium cinereum Ballerina

Dianthus gratianopolitanus

Gentiana angustifolia 'Frei'

Verbascum atroviolaceum

Erodium 'Natasha'

Action-Packed Weekend

2010-06-01T10:51:00.008+01:00

MIL and FIL arrived on Thursday afternoon, Colin and Maureen on the Friday.

On the Friday evening MIL, FIL, Maureen and I went to see The Resurrection Man at Coldingham village hall whilst Paul and Colin went into Duns to watch the rally stage through the town. The original two nights of the play, written by local hero Mike Fenty, had been when I was in Malta. They had sold out so this extra performance was to satisfy local demand. A good time was had by all.

On to Saturday with fingers crossed. The weather forecast had been for heavy rain but the morning dawned as overcast, not too cold and, most importantly, dry. There were two planned stages past us, one in the morning then another mid afternoon. There was enough time between the two to allow people to get to us for our planned barbecue and get away again if they didn't want to watch the cars. As it turned out the morning stage was a damp squib - early in the running there was a bad accident with one of the cars around Billiemains and the stage was stopped. The barbecue, however, was a great success. And perfectly timed - we were just packing up and people thinking about heading home before the roads were re-shut when some light rain started to fall. Reg stayed on to watch the afternoon session - a good view from our patio and easy to dive back in to the sunroom if the weather deteriorated.

What could we do for entertainment on the Sunday? I had been planning an afternoon out with MIL and Maureen to Edrom and Lamberton nurseries but the rain had set in. However, it stopped late afternoon, the sun came out and a glorious evening followed on.

The question being asked was 'Have you seen the hole?'. Margaret had asked Paul so he had gone to look a few days earlier. The previous evening Paul and the dogs showed Colin. So Sunday evening we all had an expedition to take a look. Through the field just before the bridge and then turn left towards the river.

The first photographs I took could not convey the size of the hole, but this one gives an idea of the scale. We don't know what happened but are guessing that the river/burn backed up here when it flooded and then just carried away the soil when it receded again.

Colin and Maureen were going home the next day. I suggested to Maureen that we reschedule the garden nursery outing to the next morning, weather permitting, followed by a late lunch here and they depart in the afternoon. And so it came to pass...

We three set off around 10.30 a.m., with lunch scheduled for 2 p.m.

Edrom nursery first. I had never walked around their woodland plant garden before, but we were drawn in with the rhododendrons putting on a magnificent display. Then a browsing of the rockery and scree beds before on to the serious business. One slow walk around the plants and then the second pass with basket.

Plants bought, a drive across Coldingham moor to the A1 and back towards Berwick. All was going well until, rounding a corner, and traffic jam. Luckily this turned out to be road works/traffic lights - replacing a section of crash barrier - and we weren't held up for too long. Turn off shortly afterwards towards Lamberton. Some more purchases and enough time to explore the garden there before setting off for home over Lamberton moor. We had timed it to perfection, pulling up into the drive with a couple of minutes to spare.

I carried my first box of plants up to my bench, and Maureen brought the second one. Colin 'She's not bought all those plants has she?'. I quite truthfully replied that they were mine... her's were already stowed in their car :)

I couldn't get around to positioning/planting them yesterday. The latest excitement is that the Duns/Preston road was shut for resurfacing yesterday and the same appears to be true today. As a result the road past us is the diversion route! More than making up for the lack of cars from the rally. We even have a number 34 bus going past on a regular basis...

To get over my gardening withdrawal symptoms I weeded the herb bed yesterday evening. Oh what joy when I discovered baby lavender plants hiding in amongst the weeds. And the garlic chives that I sowed and had given up all hope of germinating were hiding in there.

The other ongoing entertainment has been the progress of my peas. I am now up to 31 germinated out of 36 sown. I don't think the missing 5 are going to come through now. But on the whole the ones that have made it are growing rapidly. They should be ready for planting out before the week is out.

Late Spring Cleaning

2010-05-27T15:16:00.003+01:00

We have visitors coming for the Jim Clark rally, so it could not be put off any longer. I hate housework...

Just the bare minimum to make the house look respectable.

A tidy up of the sitting room - got around to relocating all the leaflets and junk mail to the recycling bag. Now the surfaces could be cleared for a quick dusting. Paul is in charge of the vacuuming...

Then a kitchen blitz while Paul was out buying up enough food to feed an army. All the washing up done, dried and put away. All surfaces washed. Miscellaneous objects that find their way in there relocated to more suitable places, cupboards and drawers.

Luckily the sunroom is fairly minimal - just needed a very quick tidy up. All my gardening books and brochures in one neat pile.

I even had a go in the utility room. Although the casual observer may not believe this.

The house will quickly revert to its normal state of untidy chaos from now until our next guests come in July. But the garden will look great :)

All Go In The Garden

2010-05-25T21:46:00.012+01:00

The garden seems to be changing on a daily basis. Having been away for a week and a half the change was dramatic when I got home.

I felt a bit like a mother who missed her child's first steps - my blue poppy had come into flower for the first time ever while I was away. I planted it four years ago and I missed it's big day, but luckily it was still flowering. Not only that but when the first flower ended a second one opened.

Paul had posted a photograph of my Angelique tulips on facebook so that I could see them. They are stunning, and still flowering two weeks on. People have been stopping to admire them and ask me what they are.

In fact it has been a great year for many of my tulips - they have obviously thrived on the long cold spell at the start of the year.

The last couple of days I have been concentrating my efforts in the veggie garden.

Yesterday I showed my true Scottish heritage. I was thinning my carrot seedlings but couldn't bring myself to throw them out. I now have many more rows. A good watering and they all seem to be quite perky so I will hopefully have more carrots than I know what to do with in another month or two.

I then weeded the f-t-b-t-b/potato patch and have earthed them up as best I could.

It started to rain in the late afternoon and continued on in to the evening, but it was not the downpour that we really needed. The ground still appears to be bone dry today.

Today I have been sorting out the veggie patch.

I have weeded the whole area. I had potato plants coming up all over it. I have allowed two of the beds to keep them, but dug them out of all the others. A lucky few have been replanted in a spare part of the f-t-b-t-b and in gaps in the two veggie patch beds but the rest have been thrown in the rubbish sack. There are only so many potatoes we need.

I then planted out the Red Rum runner beans around my bamboo wigwams. They have theoretically been hardening off the last week or so, but as it has been so hot I am not sure what effect it has had.

Last Friday was the Paxton village plant and goody sale. Amongst other things I bought a couple of tomato plants. I am hoping they will survive outside as the veggie patch is well protected, almost a walled garden having walls on three sides.

Next I transplanted some of the cabbages from the raised planters. The home made cloches were not up to the strong winds we had - a rethink is needed. But I have reused the water pipe to make hoops directly into the ground and covered them with a couple of metres of the butterfly netting I bought a while back.

My dwarf bush beans were also ready to be planted. I have decided on a tactical positioning of these to act as a 'keep Jen out of the veggie patch'. So three of the obelisks have been placed at a couple of metre intervals along the front of the veggie patch. I then got Paul to help me untangle and cut suitable lengths of my bean and pea netting. This has now been attached to the obelisks, forming a barrier. I had planted two beans per pot, and in every case they had both germinated. I was supposed to discard the weaker seedling but I was too late as they had all grown so much while I was away. So each pair has been planted now alongside the netting. I have also planted Sunbright runner beans around the obelisks.

Everything has been given a good watering, including the raised planters.

To finish the day I have sown another batch of runner beans.

The sunroom is proving to be an excellent substitute for a greenhouse. I sowed some peas in one of my pieces of guttering last Friday and this morning I spotted the first seedling poking through. This evening I could see another four.

Hopefully tomorrow's weather forecast is as erroneous as today's. Next jobs are to thin/replant my lettuces, rocket and spinach...

Malta Adventures

2010-05-17T09:17:00.004+01:00

I have an extra day in Malta courtesy of the ash cloud. 7.15 flight finally cancelled at 9.30 this morning. Geoff kindly phoned Air Malta for me and I am now booked on tomorrow's flight so another early morning. Will try to get an early night tonight as very little sleep last night due to late night with Tess/Geoff taking people to airport and my cold has really taken hold now. Luckily I have now had time to get to a chemist...

So briefly on to the scrabble.

The European Open was held on the 8-11 May. I played and picked reasonably well and was alternating with Nigel for the lead in the early stages before Nigel pulled away. On the last day I was the only player who could overtake him so was paired against him in rounds 28 and 29, which I lost. This had given Harshan a chance to overtake me, being one win behind me with three to play and a better spread than me. I beat him in round 30 but Harshan would still overtake me if he beat me in the last two. Luckily I also won the next game by 11 and so was guaranteed 2nd place overall. I was very pleased with my spot of LOvE(V)INE, the only playable bonus in this game. In the end Harshan lost his last game to Joanne Craig who overtook him for 3rd place.

A couple of days off for sight seeing. On the Wednesday Theresa had organised a free harbour cruise for those who wanted it. On the Thursday three carloads of us and Theresa/Geoff's dogs went to Gozo for the day. A very pleasant way to spend a day before getting back down to business with the Malta International Scrabble Open that started the following afternoon.

I started reasonably winning 4 of the 5 played on the Friday but managed to pick up Theresa's cold bug so got little sleep overnight. A bad day on the Saturday, only winning 6 out of 10 so could not really afford to lose any games on the Sunday. Unfortunately this was not to be. Jared (who eventually finished 5th) did a wipeout job on me in the first game of the day. I was not only going to finish outside the prizes but was in danger of being neither the top Scot nor the top placed woman after I also lost to Jojo Delia in round 18. A strong finish, however, saw me claw back into 7th place and save my dignity :) For a refreshing change Nigel was beaten into third place by the surprise winner Mohammad Sulaiman from Pakistan and Craig Beevers in second place.

I must say a huge thankyou to Theresa and Geoff who (along with the dogs) have made me feel so welcome. I have even been upgraded to the en-suite spare room for my enforced extra night's stay now that Karen has left. Maybe I will also be honoured with Smudge (cross between a Dalmation and unknown other parentage) sleeping on the bed tonight.

The Election

2010-05-05T18:58:00.003+01:00

Well, maybe not THE election but an election...

Ever since the Berwick A team failed to get promoted back into division 1 there were mumblings and rumblings about disbanding the team. So questions were asked and a meeting arranged prior to last night's club competition.

It turns out that actually everyone was happy to carry on, with varying degrees of 'I'll play if your stuck' up to 'there has been a Berwick A team for thirty four (?) years and it should never be disbanded'. The only real issue was who would be captain, with Ros stepping down.

Many of the team have been captain in the past and didn't want to be it again. The main problem outlined being that we are on the borderline of division 1 and 2, half the team think we should be striving to get into and stay in division 1 and therefore should try to put out our strongest team for each match and the other half being more concerned at actually getting a fair crack of the whip.

So when Paul had told Reg that I may be persuaded to be captain and this was mooted I was elected unopposed with nodding of heads.

Now I have a delicate line to walk living up to my election manifesto promise of offering each player the chance to play in at least a third of the matches...

Spreadsheets will be required.

Scrabble Garden Modelling Garden Scrabble...

2010-05-03T21:51:00.003+01:00

I have started a new scrabble project. Chains of hooks. I have been thinking about doing this on and off for several years and at last started a few days ago.

Luckily I decided to do this as a spreadsheet as it is very prone to user error. I have realised I have missed whole branches, but it is so much easier to correct this than if I had done it as a straight word file as I wanted a column format.

I have started with the two letter words, and have just finished DO and am already up to nine pages. And that is not including S plural hooks to save on space - words that take an S are in black and those that don't are in red.

The longest words found so far are SPARKIEST (AR, PAR, PARK, PARKI, PARKIE, SPARKIE, (SPARKIES), SPARKIEST) and ASPIRATED (AT, ATE, RATE, IRATE, PIRATE, PIRATED, SPIRATED, ASPIRATED).

Between doing this I have resumed digging out the cherry tree bed (maybe) to be. The sandstone that I found last year does continue right along to the oil tank, although it is slightly deeper that end. My plan is to move a few barrow loads of excess soil from LB8 and 9 to this bed to build the soil level up to the height of a ridge that sticks out from the wall. This should give be about a foot of soil above the sandstone but I am not sure if that is enough. However, it will be enough for fruit bushes...

A day off yesterday. A Manchester based magazine (Candis) is doing an article about me and scrabble - possibly in their July issue. Yesterday they sent a photographer to take some shots. He arrived about 1 p.m. as arranged. About three trips to bring all his gear in and then set up lights and a backdrop in the lounge. A couple of test photos. I had been asked to wear a scrabble shirt so I had duly obliged. Had I got any others? I showed him one other that I would be willing to wear - and he went with my original choice. Could I wear something other than jeans? The magazine apparently doesn't like jeans. I changed into my posh gold coloured trousers - didn't really go with the shirt but he was happy. Jen and Poncho were a little put out - he had taken over their bed area with all his equipment. We were also a little concerned they may pull down the back drop so I put them out in the garden. And then I was constantly worried about what Jen might be up to. And they were not overly happy at being shut out. And they hadn't had their lunch...

Anyway, hundreds of photos later of me with scrabble board, scrabble tile bag, scrabble rack, scrabble tiles... you get the idea. About two hours from start to finish.

It was back to the sandstone excavation today. Almost finished removing the worst of the crud now - maybe another hours work. Poncho came out and was actually being very well behaved, just lying down enjoying the evening sunshine. And then Jen came out. I was just going out the gate to empty another bucket load of you-know-whats when she jumped up into my middle raised planter. Potential disaster. I shouted at her to get down. And as per normal she completely ignored me. So I went running up to pull her down before she did too much damage. And the next thing I know the pair of them had disappeared out of the gate that I hadn't shut properly. Straight round to Margaret's. I caught up with Poncho investigating a new conifer she had just planted in her verge, and frog marched him by the collar back home. And then back to get Jen who I had seen heading straight to Margaret's house. Margaret had already 'captured' her in her courtyard by the time I got there.

A quick inspection of the seedlings when I got her back home. Luckily I don't think she has done too much damage...

Know Your Dog

2010-04-30T13:09:00.005+01:00

p.s. I forgot to say that the previous post was brought to you at a great personal cost to myself.

In the excitement of seeing the onion seedlings I forgot to put the barrier up for the kitchen before heading out with my camera.

I came back to find the double chocolate chip muffin container on Poncho's bed. Two double chocolate chip muffins and paper cases presumably in Poncho's tummy :((((

No breakfast for him!!!

Know Your Onions

2010-04-30T10:41:00.017+01:00

Almost overnight the trees around us have come into leaf. Everything is starting to go mad in the garden so time for a progress report.

I have been doing daily inspections of the raised planters to check on progress of both the seeds and the vole. Luckily the vole appears to have been inactive of late. But today the onions have made their debut appearance...as have the carrots.

The lettuces are still coming through but don't seem to be growing quickly. Or am I just very impatient? Should check when I am supposed to thin them...

Similarly for the spinach and rocket...

On the potato front my old second earlies are well on their way, almost all now having come through. The main crop are also beginning to sprout above ground amidst the thousands of weed seedlings. Still no sign of the first earlies. There was a set back with the far corner where Jen decided she wanted to dig a hole...

I planted the first of my runner beans and French beans into pots on Wednesday and they are now sitting in propagators on the sunroom windowsill. I have decided it is still a little too cold for the peas, but hopefully when I get back from Malta mid-May.

I had a trip to Lamberton nursery on Tuesday. I had mentioned to Anne a while back that I would be going sometime soon and I would let her know when if she wanted to come. I wasn't expecting James to come along too - Paul's car was in the garage so he had to squeeze into the back of mine. No list with me - I had free rein:

Sedum pachyclados - a few straggly bits that I pulled off the main plant and have put in various cracks and crannies in th path. May take...
Antennaria 'Alex Duguid'
Dianthus Pikes Pink - a double
Primula juliae
Daphne mezereum 'Bowles White'
Paeonia veitchii
Bellevalia ciliata - a member of the hyacinth family. I had enough bulbs to split into 6 small clumps
Saxifrage hostii
Rhododendron 'Arctic Tern'/'Shamrock'/'Patty Bee'

and my star buy -Salix nakamurana yezoalpina. A big name for a small plant. I'm not sure the photo does it justice - the leaves are so tactile. It shouldn't get much taller but will spread horizontally to a couple of feet or more.

All got planted except for the rhodos amidst light spots of rain in the late afternoon.

It was back to LB9 yesterday. I started at the bottom, digging out the clay and placing the cobbles and worked my way up towards the middle. The previously placed stepping stones were removed as they were not up to the job and Paul helped me get a new one in that I had managed to shuffle across but could not lift on my own. Then back to the top and working my way down. Another day or two to finish it I reckon, but Paul is away playing bridge this weekend and there is no way I can get the next two earmarked rocks in place on my own...

I occasionally wonder why I am doing all this and then I see how good what I have already done is looking and my heart lifts...

Last year's Edrom nursery plants are all doing well. Having survived this winter they should be able to cope with anything.

In the last few days as I have noticed the most divine perfume as I have been working. I have tracked it down to this daphne that is knee high to a grass hopper, currently about two inches tall. Another variety I bought last year has grown considerably and is covered with buds.

The snakeshead fritillarias that I planted in the autumn are also now starting to flower.

And not to be outdone, the viola that Jean gave me is putting on a show.

My Knees Hurt

2010-04-26T20:32:00.004+01:00

The sun was shining and although it was a bit blowy it was quite warm, so back out into the garden today. The tulips had opened up again, after joining me in a day off yesterday.

I started with digging along the wall at LB9 with a trowel. I couldn't find the best way of doing this. Sitting was difficult as I was sideways on, kneeling was okay but the path is hard with odd stones sticking up and squatting kills my legs. In the end I kept swapping between all three. I think I am going to have a lot of bruises on my knees by tomorrow. Stones seem to accumulate along the edge of the wall, and using the fork just doesn't get them out. Four more bucket loads of stones removed but it did look a lot better for it.

Penny arrived just before I had finished and got to work continuing along LB8 with the fork and then taking over trowel duty when she had reached the end. I hope her knees are faring better than mine.

I then used some of the larger stones to edge the new bed along the wall. Now I just needed to fill it with more soil. Back to digging over the garden side, loading washing up bowl with a couple of spadefuls, remove the stones and load at the back. Penny departed with about four loads to go.

A quick ciggie break and then I continued de-stoning the garden side of the path. I ended the day by getting another stepping stone in place.

Trials and Tribulations of a Veggie Grower

2010-04-25T10:21:00.005+01:00

A bit of a disaster in the middle raised planter.

I took off the covers yesterday and could see soil disturbance, mainly around the edges but also in a few places in the middle. And a tell-tale vole hole. However, I can see a couple of rows of, hopefully, cabbages coming up amidst the chaos.

The first raised planter is looking a lot more successful. Definite rows of lettuces, rocket and spinach coming through.

No signs of any of the root vegetables yet in either planter...

The cloche in the third planter did not fare well in the wind and hail stones last week. The dowels have snapped on two of the hoops. I thought the one in the veggie patch had also failed its first test. Two of the obelisks had fallen over onto it (Paul hadn't pushed them in firmly enough) but when I picked them up it was fine.

Not much done in the garden last week - too cold. I did, however, manage to transplant a dozen wild primroses from LB1 to LB11/12 and pot up a lot of self-seeded plants from the rose bed (two pampas grasses, three cotoneasters and a spirea) and some pulmonarias (lungworts) and polemoniums (Jacob's ladders) from the trellis bed. I have also decided to give up on the trellis bed and relocate the plants I want to keep elsewhere and let the wild strawberries take it over.

But the sun was shining yesterday. And the tulips opened :)

A good session on LB9. Paul helped me get a mega-rock foothold in place at lunchtime - I couldn't move it, Paul could just about shuffle it along to the hole I had excavated for it. Penny came over in the afternoon to help. She has forked the stretch along the edge of the wall while I was digging over the garden side of the path. By the end of the afternoon we had almost completed the definition of the path up to the end of LB9. Time to get the weed killer out for LB8 - again...

Stem Cells

2010-04-23T12:29:00.005+01:00

While the weather has taken a downturn I have been doing a lot of work on the 6+1 stems.

As previously intimated I was far from happy at the 'usefulness' of the stems in the Collins OSL.

So after completing my beautiful spreadsheet of the Collins' top 250 I then went back to the old book and added in those that had been dropped - a stunning 138 stems. I really couldn't believe that switching dictionaries had made that dramatic a change.

I colour coded the stems depending on whether it was in both books, just Collins (dark pink) or just Chambers (pale pink).

I then created two ranking columns. The first based on the probability of the stem and how many of the remaining tiles (assuming a full bag) the stem went with. The second based on the probability of the stem + the number of different letters it went with - the number of remaining tiles it did not go with. As a final tie breaker just the number of different letters it combined with.

Then I hit the sort button...

Results:

Highest placed Collins only stem was TINIES (Collins 94) coming in at number 57.

Highest placed Chambers only stem was STREET (Chambers 195), coming in at a surprising number 10 - relatively high probability stem combing with all but 10 of the remaining tiles.

The bottom 47 were all from Collins only - a veritable sea of dark pink.

The lowest Chambers stem was DEPART at number 341.

ROADIE (Collins 121) was last - despite being a high probability stem it only combines with D,L,N,S,V and X...

TENIAS is top, RETAIN dropping to third place behind TORIES.

I think it shows that the Collins' stems have too much weighting on the probability of the stem to the detriment of how useful it is to have it in the first place.

Now on to the 8s...

Hmm - my probability calculation was a bit out. Hadn't treated duplicate letters correctly. Actually makes the Collins' stems even worse - the bottom 58 are now dark pink. NAILER is now the highest placed Collins only stem at number 65.

STREET dropped to 20th, with SINGLE now the highest Chambers entry at number 10.

The worst stem is TAENIA. It is bad in two ways. Not only does it only make a 7 with ELMPS, but also all of the words it makes already appear in a higher ranked list!

Baby Blackbirds

2010-04-17T17:17:00.003+01:00

My pruning of a winter damaged hebe was cut short when I looked up and saw a nest. A quick check peering through the broom it was resting on revealed these little chicks. I hope they won't be abandoned now - the hebe will have to wait a bit longer...

Planning and Planting

2010-04-16T20:16:00.009+01:00

After seventeen hours of work LB10 was completed yesterday lunchtime.

I celebrated by planting my contorted hazel into it.

And as I was sitting on the wall drinking a cup of coffee and admiring my work I thought 'I'll just clear up the stones and crud along the rest of the wall'. Three bucket loads just from the surface. And then I started to dig out a few more... And then I thought that I really should determine the bank edge of the path so that I would know how far back to clear the stones from the wall edge. And before I knew it it was 7 p.m. and LB9 was well underway.

I promised myself a reward day today. I spent yesterday evening scouring the plant catalogue of Edrom nursery and drew up a wish list. Armed with my list off I went this morning.

Back and forth along the benches I went looking for my plants. I started off quite well, sticking to the list, and picking what I thought was the best specimen. And then I went off list. I started a second basket for 'ooh - that's nice' plants. And then when I had been around all the plants about three times I did something rarely done - I put some back! I had given myself a limit of fifty quid, but obviously something was off on my radar as I came in three pounds under :(

Still, I was happy. Fifteen plants bought and the sun was shining so I put the car roof down. Three hours of entertainment from setting off to getting home.

On List
Prunus incisa kojo-no-mai
Cyananthus lobatus Giant Form
Lathyrus vernus
Brunnera Silver Wings
Hepatica nobilis
Clematis x cartmanii Moonbeam
Pieris japonica Little Heath
Off List
Primula Hall Barn Blue
Primula David Valentine
Corydalis flexuosa Purple Leaf
Ledodondron Arctic Tern
Picea glauca Alberta
Gentiana gracilipes
Veronica prostrata Lilac Time
Campanula cochlearifolia

I spent the afternoon placing them around LB10 and 11 before deciding on their final positions and planting them. I also kept my promise to Janet's hellebore.

Poor Penny had come along and ended up picking up more stones...

I ended the day having a slow meander around the rest of the garden spotting what was new, what needs to be done and what plants I can divide/transplant into the new planting areas. And what is not happening - no neat little rows of veggie seedlings yet...

Les Cloches Du Todheugh

2010-04-14T20:31:00.008+01:00

I should have spent Monday gardening. Lost my match with Neil 4-3...

Only got 4 hours out there yesterday as we needed to go food shopping in the morning and play bridge in the evening, but made good progress on LB10.

Back out this morning continuing where I left off.

And then after lunch it was time to complete the homemade cloches. One of the bits of pipe has got a bit of a kink in it, but it still serves its purpose.

I had been wondering how to attach the cover to the frames but then I remembered that I had bought a pack of various clips and garden ties from Aldi's last year. So the covers are now clipped to the frame. This is actually better than permanently attaching them as I can change it to netting in the summer.

Paul helped me relocate them to their new homes.

Not bad for a total cost of about 15 quid - and most of that was for the tin of wood preservative.

The rest of the day was spent continuing on LB10. I really thought I would get it finished today but I hadn't counted on quite how many stones there were.

Can You Dig It

2010-04-11T21:01:00.015+01:00

Working on the top of the long bank extension is a very fluid process. You just know what feels right as you work your way along. So this morning it seemed the thing to do was to dig over a mound of stony soil in LB11, remove the stones and then relocate a good load of it up to the top. By lunchtime I had finished LB11 as far as landscaping is concerned. Oh Happy Day. To christen it I transplanted two of the heucheras from LB12 to the now raised soil level in front of the wall.

Paul was playing bridge so I had to have a break to take the dogs out and feed them. A cup of coffee on the patio and then a slow meander around with my camera. I am quite amazed by how few plants I have lost - almost everything has survived except for the bedding dianthuses and the small fuchsias. The large fuchsia looked dead, but closer examination has shown new growth coming from the bottom.

Back to work on LB10 trying to work out where the path wanted to be. Penny arrived with chocolate brownies...

A lot more stone removal. I am no longer keeping track of how many times I am having to negotiate my way down to empty the bucket over the road. And more soil digging over and relocation. Penny left around 5.30 again. I spent about another hour forking back over the area along the wall before calling it a day. I hate to tempt fate but I seem to be progressing a lot faster than anticipated.

Last task was to cover my raised planters as there is a risk of a frost tonight.

I have a day off tomorrow. Probably for the best as I am feeling very stiff tonight. Going to Edinburgh to play my round 2 BEST match against Neil Scott. Just hope it is worth foregoing another good gardening weather day...

A Year On

2010-04-10T21:54:00.004+01:00

I started digging out my veggie patch a year ago yesterday.

Yesterday, after weed killer spraying the rose bed, I sowed my first veggie seeds. Not directly into the veggie patch but in the raised planters which I am currently treating as seed beds.

Planter 1:

Carrot Amsterdam Forcing - 2 rows

Radish Scarlet Globe - these are old seeds so just 1 row

Carrot Supreme Chantenay - 2 rows

Radish Red prince - also old seeds

Spinach - 2 rows

Rocket - 2 rows

Lettuce Romaine - 2 rows

Lettuce Salad Bowl - 2 rows

Planter 2:

Cabbage Surprise - 1 row

Cabbage Autumn Queen - 1 row

Cabbage Winter Tundra - 1 row

Curly Kale - 1 row

American/Land Cress - 2 rows

Spring Onions - 1 row

Leeks - 3 rows

Bulb Onions - 3 rows

Pickling Onions - 4 rows

I also weeded the herb patch. I decided the lavenders were dead so reluctantly pulled them all out. And now I have sown one small patch with garlic chives and another with Shiso Purple. Both these packets of seeds are old but had not been opened so may be okay still. I bought the latter many years back at the Chelsea Flower Show - apparently it's a bit like basil.

Paul made the second cloche frame and assembled my other three obelisks.

We were both back out today. Paul has painted the frames with wood preservative, pruned one of my shrubs for me and mown the lawn. There was a bucket dispute when he decided the dogs needed a bath as I was using the bucket for my stone collecting. I pointed out there was another one in the utility room and then he wanted them both... A slight inconvenience for Paul or a major inconvenience for me. I kept my bucket.

I decided today was a long bank extension day for me. I started off with weeding the middle section of LB11/10/9. This was in preparation for planting the summer flowering bulbs I had bought a few weeks back. And then I got side-tracked - I was told Penny was coming over to help and Paul had decided he wanted her to spray the back lawn-to-be area. So I was tasked with mixing more weed killer and filling the sprayer. Right on cue Penny arrived.

So when I got back to the long bank I then started working on the top of LB10. I got nothing done on this last year due to other priorities but I am determined to complete at least that section this year. The problem is that I am not sure of what to do. The buried path that I had excavated along LB12 and 11 is wonderful, but it was showing no sign of going up, unlike the wall. The level of the soil at the top of LB11 is still below the first faced brick layer of the wall and if the excavated path continues at its current level it is going to be over a breeze block too low. So I decided to procrastinate and start at the other end of LB10. And as I was digging out the weeds and stones I came across our builders buried dump site. Enough off-cuts of our wall stones to make a very nice edging for the bed I am planning along Margaret's wall and loads of that horrendous plastic tape that all building supplies seem to be bound with. I must say that it made quick work of making my way right along the wall but the level has now dropped even more.

Penny left about 5.30 having helped with stone removal, brick relocation and coffee break companionship. It was very tempting to just stay sitting on the patio enjoying the glorious sunshine. However, I then remembered what I had supposed to be doing so finished off the gardening day by planting all my Dutch irises and half my liatrises.

I will be out with my camera tomorrow. Things are flowering...

You've Been Framed

2010-04-08T21:19:00.007+01:00

I achieved my goals yesterday.

Another 15 or so loads of topsoil, with some help from Penny, added into f-t-b-t-b and at last I was happy with its level. The freecycle topsoil pile is now more like a pimple.

Paul cut up the remaining pallets for my veggie patch paths.

And then the ceremonial carrying out of the seed potatoes from the utility room window sill.

Paul brought the scaffolding planks up from the side of the sheds so that I could dig my trenches and plant them with minimal compaction of my beautiful bed. The King Edwards are filling half the space - 5 rows with one left over all on its own. Then I planted the first earlies at the other end. I still have some room in the middle to see if my sprouting 2nd earlies from last year prove to be even better value.

Unfortunately today has not been anywhere near as successful despite a good start.

Paul came out to start building my cloches. We now have one frame, 1.56m by 0.83m, which fits inside the raised beds where I don't have rocks sticking out of the wall. Dowels cut and holes drilled. Various pipes have been tested for flexibility. The smaller blue piping and black piping has been passed as suitable for cloche hoops. The larger blue piping is not bendy enough. However, it is has now had several lengths cut off it and hooped directly into one of my raised planters and covered with my fleece. The rest will be used similarly for one of the beds in the veggie patch.

I made a couple of wigwams for my runner beans. And then constructed one of the (four) Aldi obelisks that have been stored (and the boxes gnawed) in my shed. If you zoom in you can see the rhubarb is thriving at the back of the steps to nowhere. Paul is already asking when will it be ready to pick...

It clouded over at lunchtime, threatening rain, so that is as far as we got. The wind got up and it was decidedly chilly.

With the re-designation of the fleece I now needed to get something else to cover the cloches with. Penny had mentioned she had a large roll of polythene that she had got for waterproofing her garage and if I wanted any... I skyped her and she said she would bring it over. It was only when she opened the boot that I realised that it was black :)

So I spent the afternoon on the web and found this site that sells all kinds of garden fleece/netting etc. at what I considered very reasonable prices. I have now ordered some horticultural polyethylene, butterfly netting, enviromesh and hessian potato sacks.

The weather looks better for tomorrow so I may actually get around to start sowing seeds... It would be a shame to have all the infrastructure in place but no plants :)

Scrabble Garden Garden Scrabble...

2010-04-07T10:28:00.003+01:00

The sun is shining. That means end of scrabble studying and back out into the garden.

On the scrabble study front I have gone back to basics with stems, recreating my revision spreadsheets as I go. I really don't like the 'order of usefulness' in the Collins OSL. I think it is basically flawed, and not only by just using valid 6 letter words as the stems. How can TOEIER which only combines with A and Z, once you have ruled out the already seen words (only 3) from higher 'useful' stems come in at number 145 whereas ALDERS, which combines with 20 other letters with 15 of them not having already occurred higher up, be number 169... In the old book it was number 85 and TOEIER did not register. I think once I have gone through all 250 I will add in the old Chambers non-word stems and reorder the whole caboodle based on my own criteria of usefulness.

I had a quick look at my cardbox the other day. I have ignored it since Malaysia and it was around the 27500 questions pending mark. A reset methinks when I eventually resume...

We are currently getting our gutters replaced from the winter ice. Yesterday I salvaged a piece of guttering and one of the chaps kindly cut up another into three lengths of about a metre and a half. I am now all set to plant my peas in them a la Gardener's World.

But first things first, another day of topsoil sifting should see that through and then the potatoes in. Talking of which I got another carrier bag full out of the supposedly emptied veggie patch when I dug it over last week. I wonder how many are still there...

Rain Stops Play - Again

2010-04-03T19:44:00.004+01:00

After a few days off I got back outside yesterday. Time to dig in the cow muck that I had liberally covered the veggie patch in last year. And then I decided that the layout of the beds was wrong. Two of them were too long and narrow, going from the wall down to the lawn to be. So now I have rearranged them all. Hopefully the beds are now large enough to be useful and small enough for me to be able to dig and plant them without having to stomp on them.

I tried to get Paul to saw up some more pallets to put in the pathways I had dug out but I am going to have to wait. He has taken the skin off his hand between thumb and forefinger when he did the lawn raking last week and decided this was a good excuse...

The one thing the sleet and rain has done is settle the soil in the fruit-tree-bed-to-be. This has shown that I was premature in my green highlighting. There is a definite slope down towards the wall so I need to add more to get it level. I made a start today. One barrow load done but the soil was too claggy. I decided just to get the weeds out of the remaining topsoil pile, but after half an hour it started to rain again :(

So we had a trip out to Homebase this afternoon - 20% off gardening section. And a mental list of all the things we need to make Geoff Hamilton cloches. We already have wood (left over from extension), water pipe (left over bits provided by Alan last year) to make the hoops, and the winter fleece I bought from Aldi's last year as the covering. So now we have angle brackets, screws, wood preserver, wood glue and dowel. Now I just need a handyman :)

I also bought two bundles of 7 ft bamboo canes, some bean/pea netting and some bedding plants. We had thought at first that 8 ft bamboo canes wouldn't fit into Paul's car but this was disproved when the 7 ft canes fitted in with room to spare. So we went back in...

And I also decided to buy two each of their aluminium troughs and deep planters, which had been already been reduced to half price before the extra 20% off, to replace my terracotta pots have not survived this winter.

To do list:

add more topsoil to fruit-tree-bed-to-be

plant potatoes

plant remaining summer flowering bulbs/bedding

start sowing veggie seeds (hopefully under my new home-made cloches)